words and shadows
Sometimes I imagine a world in which, instead of talking, people have actual giant words in their hands, that they pass along whenever they wish to say something (think like those fridge magnet letters). So when I want to express myself, I jumble together a physical sentence and hand it to the person with whom I'm conversing, and vice-versa. People move around, and words move around, get re-jumbled, and etc.
But the world is not so simple, is it? The analogy requires much more if it is to be reflective. When we use words as positioning tools what we're doing is aligning ourselves to the words, rather than the opposite. Imagine in my hypothetical world a series of words, fixed on stationary stands, immovable. These are the words of absolutes. Words that when used 'say' things about the users that position them into very particular spots. So, in order to use these words, one must stand very near to them, which also precludes one from aligning oneself with other, more distant stationary words. The highly transient nature of belief, however, allows humans to come to and go from stationary words just about whenever they please. The more passionate (or stubborn) folk might put out a chair, and sit near a word like Love or Tradition or Reason or Misery for a lifetime.
Words fall from the sky and impact the skin like drops of rain, flakes of snow, beams of light, waves of heat, gusts of wind. People drink words, people eat words, people feel and smell and touch words, ingesting them all.
Words become weapons of war; they are shot from guns, dropped from planes, brought forth from the heart as a knife to the other man's chest.
Words are nets, capturing our prey in love and conquest, forcing guilt and glee.
Words become tools for creating one's shadow. Shadows follow people around, but rarely move quite the same way their progenitors do. Dishonest fools have fools for shadows, following them around, stumbling and tripping as though drunk. Hypocrites sit alone and incomplete by their stationary words, while their shadows sit elsewhere, separated. The true sociopaths are consumed by shadow, long and slender, but no progenitor to be seen, for he is hiding.
The truly honest have shadows just like yours and mine.
Like dogs, people chase shadows as though they are alive.
But the world is not so simple, is it? The analogy requires much more if it is to be reflective. When we use words as positioning tools what we're doing is aligning ourselves to the words, rather than the opposite. Imagine in my hypothetical world a series of words, fixed on stationary stands, immovable. These are the words of absolutes. Words that when used 'say' things about the users that position them into very particular spots. So, in order to use these words, one must stand very near to them, which also precludes one from aligning oneself with other, more distant stationary words. The highly transient nature of belief, however, allows humans to come to and go from stationary words just about whenever they please. The more passionate (or stubborn) folk might put out a chair, and sit near a word like Love or Tradition or Reason or Misery for a lifetime.
Words fall from the sky and impact the skin like drops of rain, flakes of snow, beams of light, waves of heat, gusts of wind. People drink words, people eat words, people feel and smell and touch words, ingesting them all.
Words become weapons of war; they are shot from guns, dropped from planes, brought forth from the heart as a knife to the other man's chest.
Words are nets, capturing our prey in love and conquest, forcing guilt and glee.
Words become tools for creating one's shadow. Shadows follow people around, but rarely move quite the same way their progenitors do. Dishonest fools have fools for shadows, following them around, stumbling and tripping as though drunk. Hypocrites sit alone and incomplete by their stationary words, while their shadows sit elsewhere, separated. The true sociopaths are consumed by shadow, long and slender, but no progenitor to be seen, for he is hiding.
The truly honest have shadows just like yours and mine.
Like dogs, people chase shadows as though they are alive.
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