Cover image: Turner, J. M. W. (c. 1825–1830). Sea and Sky [Painting]
Recently I’ve been thinking about how language has shaped our world.
In the myth of the Tower of Babel, God sees the power of humans and confounds their speech so they can no longer understand each other. Humans are separated by their own language.
We use different languages to tell stories, myths, and describe what we believe to be true. Yet even within the same language, the same word can hold entirely different meanings for different people.
I can never tell whether the blue I see in the sky is the same blue another person sees, even when we are using the same word.
Language flattens everything.
It reduces the fluid, textured nature of experiences, emotions, sensations, and memories into symbols that are written or spoken.
No language can fully transmit the exact same experience one person has had to another.
And the most beautiful experience always contains something ineffable. The moment they are pressed into words, something essential is lost.
Language is also a solidifying tool.
It draws clear boundaries. Dictionaries define each word with clean precision, giving an abstract idea its shape, dictating where a concept begins and where it ends.
Once something can be put into words, it loses a certain kind of power.
Fluid slips through our hands, where solid things can be held.
Once it can be held, it can be contained.
Feel the language, not just listen. What lies underneath the words is what connects us all.
But when you speak, choose your words like a tool. Give them edges. Let them draw a line when you need it.
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