How they came into being
Maybe a cry at child birth, a growl in defiance to an attack by a beast or other being, perhaps a surprising yelp in response to a sting by a bee when foraging honey – for some reason, at one time or another, about 300,000 years ago, human kind first discovered its’ ability to produce sound. Thus began a communication process that evolved from grunts and groans to five vowels and and a handful of consonants in various combinations to form words. I suppose the basic sounds are interpreted differently in different parts of the world, thus different words, different languages. However, their usage appears to be universal.
For what purpose
I try to imagine how it all began. Coincidentally, perhaps, the ability to vocalize was accompanied by a number of other sensory capabilities; to see, hear, smell, taste, feel. Did human kind exhibit these sensory capabilities all at once, or was it a long process of sensory development over time. In either case, the brain had to assimilate or process what the senses presented to it and what they presented to it was the “entirety”. Imagine the sensory overload inundating the brain- try to imagine what that must have been like if you can. Actually, you can’t. Understand; the first humans didn’t see a forest of trees, flowers, butterflies, mountains, sky, clouds, bodies of water (i.e., , oceans, rivers, streams) other humans, animals, insects- they saw none of that- there were no such things. I presume what they saw, the entirety, was a sensual feast of incomparable magnitude.
How else to make sense of this to the human being, other than to approach the entirety by focusing on one piece of it at a time, essentially fragmenting it into countless pieces. Each piece assigned a unique sound (i.e., word) and further identified in accordance with other sensory capabilities, giving rise to words such as hard, soft, sweet sour, large, small, etc. Utilizing words as a primary means of communicating “piece identity” we then compared each identified thing with another. We differentiated, categorized, extrapolated, minimized, and maximized. There are around 470,000 words in a standard American dictionary. Words continue to be added to that count.
So What
What is the significance of this verbal diatribe. For starters, it’s good for you to think about this-I doubt that you have. An other is that “reality” that you (and I) perceive is a fragmented view of what is. A man-made, or contrivance of the entirety. I look out my window and see a tree, more precisely a pine tree. If you were here beside me, you would concur. I know what that is- it’s a pine tree. Is it, really? I think it may be more appropriate, more honest to say “ I don’t know”, we identify it as a pine tree. Pine tree is an assigned designation that we coined. We see it as a separate entity from the other things above, below and around it, such as the sky, clouds, bushes and grass- all of which we assigned different designators.
Words are very powerful in every society. Our entire knowledge base is defined by them. However, I’m here to suggest that words are a couple of steps down the ladder from reality. At best, words point to things, they don’t define them. At worst, they create the delusion that everything is separate. Remember, we couldn’t deal with the entirety, as it was presented to us, so we fragmented it. We created our own reality, based upon separation. On a personal level, we don’t see ourselves as being one with each other, instead we see others- perhaps more or less similar to us, but non the less, different then us. It may be an illusion, but it is something we can process. Is your life an illusion ?
Can words move mountains?
I don’t know how, but who does? The use of words are many and varied. From an overall perspective, words are our primary means of communicating with one another. From a more critical perspective, we might agree that word usage varies. In some instances they attempt to communicate information in a balanced, detailed and objective way. Usually, we see examples of such from scientific presentations, and journalistic efforts. In other instances words are used by those so accomplished to describe a scene as an artist might paint a landscape, perhaps the best use of them.
Words have been used to inspire, give hope, encouragement, essentially breath life into other human beings. We have many examples of that; from Jesus of Nazareth, through time to Abe Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King, to mention a few of many. On the other hand, words have been used to lie, degrade, deceive, emasculate, in effect, taking life from other human beings. In my lifetime, examples are Hitler and our current presidential candidate- there are many others throughout history.
Both are extreme examples of giving or taking life from others. Less extreme, but far more frequently, we exercise the very same choice, to give or take life from everyone we encounter. We probably don’t think about it that way, but that’s what we do. Whenever we encourage and accept the expressed views or beliefs of another as they’re right, even though we may not agree with them, we support their life , in essence, breathing life into them. When we impose our views or beliefs on others whose beliefs or views differ, we’ re putting the other down, effectively taking life from them.
In conclusion
Little earlier in this writing I asked a question: Is your life an illusion? I believe yours (ours) is an illusion. However, it may be a purposeful one. We couldn’t handle the entirety in any other way than we did. I suspect that (possibly) it is a next step toward approaching the entirety. That is to say; by learning to accept one another, to support life for all, we are a step closer to unity as one people.
That is a major step in our evolution. Once taken, a oneness with other fragments of the entirety may occur to us. In the meanwhile, a walk in the woods, amongst the flora and fauna with a sensitivity for the energy we share, sharing moments alone with a pet cat or dog, an experience of a vast and powerful ocean, the marvel of a hummingbird in flight should provide ample reason for optimism.
Anyway, that’s what occurred to me- I thought you might want to know.
…..And in the meanwhile, live your illusion and always “ be authentic, be who you are”, “go your own way”, trust the process- in reality, you can’t go wrong -even if you tried.
John 