Words with Friends...

What are words? The myriad different words and their meanings that are placed intentionally to communicate ideas. Words. Small collections of different sounds that sum up the entire knowledge base of humanity. Possibilities of creation and destruction lie in the power of these insignificant emanations. Indeed the universe was created with a word, along with every single molecule of being, by God. A God with whom our sole source of communication with is words. The Holy Bible. Prayer. Preaching. The power of words relies on the individual speaking them. Words, by themselves, are stagnant. Unmoving. If I tell you to "Go to the store," and do not give you a reason beyond my simple command, you would not do it. In fact, I may even supply you with a reason, a hundred reasons even. My reasons must become significant to you. That is where the power comes. When the words become significant to the recipient. God's very breath has significance to our entire universe, and it is no small wonder that His spoken word created it and everything within. We agree that He has power, and that His power created us. Therefore some small measure of that power could have passed on to us. I believe that it did. Is it any surprise that the Holy Ghost is evidenced by speaking in other tongues?

I enjoy words. I like learning new ones and using them, the more obfuscating the better. (Obfuscating means hard to understand... DidyouseewhatIdidthere?) Language, poetry, prose are all fascinating uses of words. In sooth, my words turn ever quickly to that of yonder years, years of ages long gone past yet still to ever rear its head. Till thou hast made a morn-full tear, when I, in foolish ennui, speak like late Shakespeare. I wonder how long it took you to realize I was attempting to write in a style similar to his. The speech patterns of his plays are well known and easily recognizable to almost everyone. Words are powerful, but they must have meaning and a response. Without either, they are nothing. 

Boundaries

I had an assignment for a class today, and, in the process of actually being surprised I found the homework interesting, came across some fascinating information. It was a TED talk by Neuroscientist Neil Burgess about How your brain tells you where you are. Now, I found this quite interesting because he said that the way we figure out where we are... Is with boundaries. Rather than go into detail about it I will sum it up. The human brain has roughly a hundred billion neurons and these communicate through electric impulses. Now they did studies that showed a specific set of neurons in a rats brain fired whenever the rat was in a certain part of a room. A different set fired in a different area and so forth. If one were to enlarge the room, the area that the neurons fired in would stretch out according to the increased room. This is how we find our cars in a parking lot, by mapping the firing neurons in our brains when we park, we can return to the location by finding the correct neuron pattern. These neurons map the space around us. These neurons also assist us when we use imagination and even when we remember a previous occasion, such as a wedding.

This sparked a thought in my mind that made me recall one of my college teachers comments. Children playing at schools want barriers. They want that wall up between them and the street. Certain people noted how at recess the children would play to the fence. They would go all the way out and back in their play. One bright intelligent person with possibly a very advanced degree decided that we should do away with the fences. Perhaps the children feel caged or imprisoned and we should get rid of those fences! Well, this happened and the children would no longer play as far. They would stay closer to the school. The fences went back up eventually and the kids would play out to the fence again. While those students would go all the way up to the fence they still deep down knew the value of them. They wouldn't feel safe until the fence was back up.

In our life we have boundaries. Spiritual. Physical. Mental. These are what tell us where we are. We can push those boundaries to the limit. Expanding or contracting according to whim or reason. They are there for a reason. I could go on and explain and explain but I will leave it with this.

Without boundaries.


We will be lost.

Contemplative

I was told, quite recently, that I was "not nerdy, but smart and contemplative." Now we may dispute the former assertions of intelligence and the lack of being nerdy, but I would like to focus on the latter assertion. That is to say, the contemplative part. Being who I am, I would not say that I am especially thoughtful. Indeed, it is most often the case that I am not thinking, especially when I am speaking, and find myself in greater amounts of trouble than it would had I thought for but a moment longer. The thought needed for me to think to myself "Just shut up John." This thought rarely occurs to me until much later, after I have–with great time and effort–clawed myself out of the hole I had so quickly dug. That said, I find myself at times, when I am no longer surrounded by people or inclinations to speak, that I become pensive and... yes, even contemplative. Thoughtful almost. It is in these moments that I find myself eloquent. Speaking (Or rather, thinking.) with unfettered words and insightful musings which cause me to wonder why I cannot seem to grasp this innate part of me in times most dire. Dire circumstance like that of the hole-diggery and all around foot-in-mouth incidences. Am I the pompous prattler to which the surrounding observers must perceive me as? Is there some gift to obtain to suddenly become so quick-witted that I speak with quality? Sadly I believe that there is some interference caused by my proximity to others that causes my signal to be unclear. My wit is staticky. I don't have any antennas on my brain to fiddle with to get better reception either.

It is but the plight of a fool
to be one though he know it not
sadly speaking wisdom unwise
twisted words sound correctly but
sadder still when said fool knows it
for all a fools effort changes naught.

photo by Caitlyn Kimbley