A World of Words
It's only words and words are all I have
To take your heart away
- Words by the Bee Gees
How do we learn most of the words in our vocabulary? Certainly not from school. We learn most of the words we know from experience--that is from listening, reading and narrowing down their meaning from the context of their usage.
We pin down the meaning of a word from a process of elimination. Initially we guess its meaning. And through repeated encounters with the same word, we zero-in on its range of possible meanings.
Unlike words which we learn artificially from reading the dictionary or from a list prescribed to us by our primary school teachers, 'experienced' words maintains their subtle nuances and potency. Only when we learn words this way are we able to write poetry. For poetry explores the expressive properties words and pushes the envelop of their meanings.
A single word can conjure up a plethora of feelings and images in our minds. Sometimes, the right word at the right place and time strikes the listener like an arrow: it could hurt or inspire. A carefully chosen word could become a powerful metaphor that triggers an aha moment.
It is no surprise that there's an entire body of sacred chants and incantations that could invoke the divine in us. Words--it's imagery and sound--push buttons in our psyche and nervous system. For didn't the book of John say that in the beginning was the Word? And the Word was with God? What is this mysterious Logos/Word? To simply equate it to Jesus is to immediate strip those immortal lines of of their awe-inspiring power.
Sometimes we run out of words. Speechless. For words are our inner-most thoughts and feelings made manifest. And when they are absent, it is akin to the lull before a storm. And when they come, they pour out in torrents sweeping away mountains of obstacles.
Words, written and spoken, are a miracle of existence. Say a word. Write a sentence. You become a creator, partaking in the drama of creation, an heir to the Word which spawned its very beginning.
