Interlude: Words

I am a person who loves words. I love the way they form in the mouth and project meaning, feeling and understanding. Words are both trifle and serious. They are the playthings of actors and comics, and the marrow of philosophers and those of their bent. A word spoken with true intelligent earnest is powerful, yet, as with most things, a demagogue may utter untruths, lies and propaganda with the same force. Words have little or no meaning by themselves, but when strung together they harmonize and blend into a melody of unimagined enlightenment. A pun is fun. A well constructed metaphor is uplifting. An artfully constructed alliteration is magnificent (e.g. V for Vendetta.) An idiom betrays the abstract while a fable teaches a lesson. The point is that we must place a value on our words and to use them with thoughtfulness.

Words are history. They are the form our memory utilizes to place ourselves within our world. A word spoken in anger is usually a word regretted. The choice of the words we speak illuminate who we are. They are the crux of our being. They also can be the abyss of our failings if our actions contradict them.

I can't say when it happened exactly, but it did happen when I was very young. It has profoundly effected my tolerance for those whose professions depend upon the use of words. I realized that words were power and if you were clever enough you could create a language within a language and use it to enslave the ignorant. Our world rots with the corruption caused by the specialization of language. I have only to listen to a political speech for a minute or two before I am disgusted. It is advertising and propaganda concealed behind a smiling used car salesman who would "eat a bug" to sell you something you don't need.

Apathy and cynicism are the byproducts of our benign ignorance. For the truly ignorant we have arrogance and thoughtlessness as these are the ones who are led by the nose to their doom and heavenly reward.

Words.
Words to brighten our lives and words to blacken our minds.
Words.
Holy words to worship both god and mammon.
Words.
Mutterings by the sacrosanct in their pursuit of more and more and more.
Words.
Soothing sonnets to satiate our settled selves with surreal settings and sit-coms.
Words.
From the blackest lies to the brightest truths.
Words.

Hope springs eternal as I again take my seat in the theatre of life. I am not optimistically pessimistic for nothing.