Words on Words

"When we convene again
to understand the world,
the first speaker will again
point silently out the window
at the hillside in its season,
sunlit, under the snow,
and we will nod silently,
and silently stand and go."

[Wendell Berry - Sabbaths 2000, II]




Something us Westerners often fail so miserably at is the crutch of language and of talking and explaining things away. We constantly seek to master and control the world through abstractions and ideas, to grasp them in our hands so as to feel more comfortable that everything might make sense.

In this poem, we expect the author to say that they are convening again to understand the world and the first speaker gets up and gives his lecture or presentation or presents his ideas and arguments and then the discussion continues and the next person gives their take followed by the next person as they all continue talking away to try and piece things together and understand them.

But that isn't what the author goes on to say, does he?

Instead, the author sets us up, thinking he is going that way, and then goes the complete opposite direction.

They gather to understand the world. But the only way to understand it is just to acknowledge that there is nothing more that can be said that will piece this all together. The only thing that can be done is to see it, nod our heads, and go.

Without saying a word.

There is an Eastern proverb that puts it this way:

"Show me a man who uses no words...

...so that I may have a word with him." 

Show me someone who doesn't rely on language and explanations and logic and systemized abstractions. Show me someone where it isn't about having everything neatly outlined and organized and it isn't about having all the answers. Where it isn't schematically articulated or scholastically pieced together.

Show me someone where they don't have to do all of that and they can be ok with it.

Because it is only then that we will be able to communicate and experience and engage and interact with one another. Only then can we be present and truly understand the world. Sometimes you just need to be there and let that internal sort of depth be enough. Where, instead of trying to cage everything up, you just stand there and let that unconfined essence continue to float where you know it and understand it with your soul as opposed to your mind. It is letting the world speak to you and not having to talk back. Many times, this is the only way we will ever truly understand the world that we live in.

For me, there is something about the time of day we call "evening" that does something to my soul. That moment where the sun begins its descent yet you can still feels its warmth and see its light. The hue of the skies begins to change and there is just this sense that all is beautiful.

And for years, I have tried to explain it. I have tried to capture it with words in order to wrap my head around this phenomenon of the evening.

And for years I have failed.

But this is what we so often try viciously hard to do: use words to capture the world. And it is usually those who are so dependent on the fictitious reality of language and the symbols that are words that have a certain anxiety or insecurity with things.

Which is exactly what I am doing with this writing.

I'm doing the very thing I'm speaking against.

It is this tendency to extract everything and dissect it and analyze it. We take the essence of the world and try to sanitize it as if we are in some sort of laboratory. We take the life out of it. And this is why songs or movies can be so moving even if there is nothing being spoken. The most moving and meaningful experiences are often where things aren't neatly and clearly defined yet they still resonate with your being.

The cry of a baby says more than their asking for something to eat.

The look on your wife's face as she glides down the aisle to give her life to you says more than any word could communicate.

Or simply the scowl of a parent catching you in your mishap - words would just take away from the raw message that is being made so clear.

Which makes sense because the part of your brain that makes decisions and experiences emotion and that "understands" things is not the same place where we gather words and form "logic". The brain isn't wired in that way.

We put so much emphasis on words, but words are never going to be the thing itself. Words are simply symbols and, on their own, they are nothing; just mere speculations that will never fully encompass what we are trying to get at. So when we depend on words, we are depending on the very thing that dilutes the actual substance of what we are trying to explore. Sometimes we just need to let the undisturbed fullness of something exist without watering it down with these vicarious symbols.

We have to remember that the word became flesh.

So beware of trying to force the flesh back into words.

Something that I obviously have a lot of work to do with...

...maybe I should have just said this:



























































































_______________________________________________________________________