Words and Voices

My life is words. Spoken aloud and spoken not loud it seems my words carry a distance that is so very far. Language comes easy for me and my words are plentiful. Chuckling here I muse that many probably think my words are far too plentiful. Because of the ease I feel with language I may not think about what I say as much as I should. In reality more often than not I do not fully think before I speak.



When you have spoken out loud something that you are at the moment thinking and have thought on for a long time, people gain an insight into the essence of who you are. If you say the thought you have been nurturing too hastily others may not see what really is inside of you. Or maybe the problem is they see too well what is in you because the words carry out more of what we keep inside than was planned.

One would think that having let an idea gestate for a while in the back of your mind would season it. One would think that ruminating over the meaning of something you have seen or come to a conclusion about would refine the way it gets presented to your audience. It just isn't so.

We oft forget that what made us who we are did not make everyone else who they are. At best we are making guesses about the scope of common experience that we share with others. So many times we find that our guesses are just that and nothing more.

There should be no surprise in finding out that my words and your words, my world and your world are like that faux old timey picture of the two trains meeting six feet off center. Still I am surprised when my words do not convey what I mean.

At times I wish there were some common source like the tree in Avatar that we could all plug into. Sometimes I wish that the barrier that exists between myself and other people would just disappear for a moment and that I could be in their skin and they in mine with our minds sharing what we know to be true, what we have experienced and through that process reconciling and advancing on to a better form of understanding and human communion.

The hippies and hipsters of the 1960s wanted to do this with LSD. They failed. Monks have wanted to do it with celibacy and libertines have wanted to accomplish it with wanton copulation. They both failed and continue to fail. Churches want us to do this through their paths, their ways of redemption. If any of these ways was the one, including Paganism, Buddhism, Christianity, Tao ad infinitum why do we still fight religious wars, crusades and jihads?

I don't have an answer to my ultimate question, how do we move beyond the limitations of language. Living with an open heart is fine, but somehow you have to communicate what your idea of good is. Words seem to be the only choice available. I guess I will just strive for greater precision in my words.