In the beginning was the Word. I enjoyed your musings about the frustrations of being limited in our abilities to adequately describe the experience of being human. I have read and heard said that the English language has a much more extensive palette for expressing the range of things we want to communicate than do many other languages. Your command of this palette is probably more extensive than that of most humans, yet, or because of this, you realize its limitations.
I think, in my limited capacities, that that is one of the great things about poetry. For me, poetry evokes experiences that there are no direct synonyms for. It stretches our abilities to share our understanding of this incredible experience of consciousness.
The wonder is not that our language is too limited, but that our conscious experience is too vast and layered to be limited by words.
Still, it is so valuable to share this experience that we must try. And then, in the effort, stand in awe as we behold Infinity. Keep writing...and musing!
This is well put. There is something to the inversion of my view that you take here, of looking at our inability to describe our circumstances as a testiment to the infinity of experience rather than a limitation to contend with. It allows me to better understand why it is that, despite my frustration, I feel it is such a privilage to struggle after the right words.
In the beginning was the Word. I enjoyed your musings about the frustrations of being limited in our abilities to adequately describe the experience of being human. I have read and heard said that the English language has a much more extensive palette for expressing the range of things we want to communicate than do many other languages. Your command of this palette is probably more extensive than that of most humans, yet, or because of this, you realize its limitations.
I think, in my limited capacities, that that is one of the great things about poetry. For me, poetry evokes experiences that there are no direct synonyms for. It stretches our abilities to share our understanding of this incredible experience of consciousness.
The wonder is not that our language is too limited, but that our conscious experience is too vast and layered to be limited by words.
Still, it is so valuable to share this experience that we must try. And then, in the effort, stand in awe as we behold Infinity. Keep writing...and musing!
This is well put. There is something to the inversion of my view that you take here, of looking at our inability to describe our circumstances as a testiment to the infinity of experience rather than a limitation to contend with. It allows me to better understand why it is that, despite my frustration, I feel it is such a privilage to struggle after the right words.