What Carries Your Meanings?

“Actions”, the saying goes,  “speak louder than words.” A related set of slangier, more idiomatic sayings includes  “You talk the talk, now walk the walk”; “Just do it” and “Less talk, more rock”.  The trouble with all of those sayings–even though they could be completely correct–is that sayings are formed with words and words about the impotence of words are, um, rather ironic.

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. It’s probably a rephrasing of  “The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr”–Mohammad, some time between 610-632 C.E. or “…the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword…” Apostle Paul ( Saul O’Tarsus? I can’t be sure. He was a Jewish Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin, was born in a town that is now part of Turkey, which was then part of the Roman Empire.  His proper name could have been Hebrew, Turkish, Latin or Aramaic) circa 35-60 C.E.  Paul was executed in Rome, maybe by decapitation with a sword.  His Christian writing often re-worked ideas from the Torah he had studied as a Pharisee.  I could possibly cite an Old Testament phrasing of “words sharper than swords”, but since I can only place the publication date of the Torah at somewhere between the beginning of time and about 600 B.C. and the authorship to “The Eternal Wisdom of the Universe/ Moses/ et al”, it isn’t the specificity level I wanted for this article.

The earliest known and datable example comes from the Greek playwright Euripides, who died circa 406 BC. He is supposed to have written: “The tongue is mightier than the blade.”

It is unclear whether Edward Bulwer-Lytton ever had any actual experience with any literal swords–not to be confused with his obvious work with literary (s)words.  After years of suffering with a disease of the ear, he underwent an operation to cure deafness. The operation caused an abscess to form in his ear which subsequently burst. After a week of horrible pain and probable madness since the infection had affected his brain, he died at 2am on 18 January 1873 just short of his 70th birthday. He lived through his writing and died through his unhearing ears.  He is survived by a phrase.  Death is always the ultimate inescapable irony of life

George Carlin said, “By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. “

I’ve used this lengthy digression regarding words about words as my intro to give some balanced weight to both opinions. I hope I haven’t made either opinion seem more important than the other, since all I really wanted was for you–whoever you are and whatever brought you here to read today–to consider the value you place on words.  I am not in the business of telling anyone what to think.  I simply offer some advice about approaches to thinking.  What you think is, always has been and always will be a matter of your own choice.

I’ll try to make this next riff as concise as I can, but hey, I’m just a drumming plumber, so…

Words are actually only symbols that encode the ideas they represent.  They are very literally containers that are smaller than the meanings they carry.  That’s an idea that really appeals to human beings.  We like to put lots of stuff in a little space.  That’s why we invented language, money, art and all of the other things that are developments of language (stored information of all types) money (stored symbolic energy of all types that are used in trade) art (transmissible emotional energy in too many media and styles to list here) and batteries. I like MY batteries rechargeable.

At any rate, words do not actually contain the ideas they represent.  The actual ideas only exist in the other realms of reality. Some words represent physical objects or actions; some represent mental objects or actions and some represent emotional objects or actions.  Speaking analogously, words are the money where physical, mental and emotional objects and actions are the products and services.  That’s the best I can do in short terms to use words to explain what words are.

Some words (remember: containers) have burst open and spilled their contents (meanings) and are no longer good carriers of meaning.  A few of these words are:

Free: This has become a word that is utterly devoid of any meaning whatsoever, making it a good place to begin my list.  The emptying of the contents of this word is largely due to its misuse in the World Wide Wubs, purveyor of more bullshit than all of the combined pastoral gruntings of all the bovines in the history of the genus Bos primigenius.  Although it is intended to convey “get something for no money” and used as a lure, any click on any web page link that uses the term “free” will direct your browser immediately to a page where you will be asked for money.  As to “freedoms” offered in constitutions, I’ll keep it simple and merely quote a favorite line from Joe Strummer of The Clash: “You have the right to free speech…as long as!…you’re not dumb enough to actually try it!!”
Freedom of the press is shaped by marketing forces and subject to government regulation.  Out of one side of our collective mouths we say we want access to the truth, then from the other side we say “that looks inappropriate.”  Did I say “we”?  I meant “I”.  It’s ME doing that.

Justice is supposed to work something like “what you do will come back to you”, Karma, the law of retribution, an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, you reap what you sow, what goes around comes around, etc.  To update another credo, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword you never saw coming.  “Justice” is a term that is completely dependent on terms contained under the heading of “Law” and is always dispensed according to the formula “might makes right” AKA “Money talks. Bullshit walks.”  You can get as much justice as you can afford to pay for; not a bit more, but sometimes a lot less.

Truth may never have been a worthy container for any meanings at all, but has been in recent years completely replaced by the containers “belief”, “opinion” and “according to reports”.

Love: Saying “I love you” is not the words I want to hear from you.  More than words is all you have to do to make it real.  Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me, ‘cuz I’d already know.  And according to the strict dualistic philosophies of still-way-too-many people, loving one thing means hating another thing.  Me no likey dislikey.  Me only love-love.  No bite-scratch-hiss da ‘nother kitehs.  Nice-nice love-love only. The word “love” has lost some of its meaning by beings used as a substitute for “fuck” in pop music and by mingling singles, and also due to being applied equally to foods, items of clothing, paint colors and the person with whom you want to spend the rest of your life.  It’s nice to love your whole world, but your significant other wants to be loved more than you love your shoes.

Peace: A “peace-keeping force”…do I really need to say any more?  Yes, unfortunately, I DO.  Seeking peace within is a wise first step, but sitting forever with closed eyes is death above ground.  Seek peace within, make picture in mind, then open eyes and make world like picture.

Cure: As attractive as this idea might seem, the truth (see above) is that there is no cure for anything except life.  There are treatments for almost any ill and many treatments are free (see above).  The trouble is that treatments are an active and self-responsible approach and usually must be performed on a daily basis.  Any illusion of any “cure” must be considered to be much like “justice” (see above).

God: Here’s a term that is inherently under-understood; it is intended to be a place-marker for the great, unsolvable mystery of existence, the unknowable origins of the spark of life, the enigma of constantly unfolding fate, the concepts of perfection and infinity that may not exist in the material world at all yet exist in our minds; the way that finite organic beings continue to generate new generations of similar organic beings with life continually renewing and regenerating itself through us no matter how smart or stupid we are and that the whole process is supported by our nurture and care, i.e. our LOVE (see above) The name or word “God” is meant to imply all of those things, plus hope, justice, faith, commitment, a sense of what is right and a spiritual energy that surrounds us with protection and support.  The word “God” is as of this writing a nearly empty container of meaning, partly because so many of the meanings it is intended to contain are themselves nearly empty.  The other part of what is currently killing the God-concept is the rampant growth of the hubris that makes us say that we know more about God than we can possibly know.  It’s MEANT to be the unanswered question.  Answering the unanswerable question merely fills the empty mental spot where wonder is supposed to reside.  Nietzsche was wrong:  God can’t die.  Only Bob and Nietzsche can die and words can–at the very worst–lose meaning.  “God” has not lost all its meaning, but it’s on the endangered list.  Here’s a tip: if you stop making God into something that is hateful, cruel and non-living (having been frozen into a book of words that is now many centuries old) atheists might be able to hear what you have to say about it. However, when it is hateful, incapable of growth and locked into the box of a religion that refuses to allow it to grow, God ain’t no God at all.

I’ve attempted to convey the concept that words are merely the containers of their meanings and I hope that is a useful thought tool.  Words are used not only to send an idea from one person to another; many of us also use words in our own minds to organize our own thoughts.  Linguistic mental programming likely begins some time after we learn language (so it is a product of our social environment) but that doesn’t mean that A) it isn’t a natural way to think or B) that our mental programming comes entirely from other people.  We can program our own minds and we can choose the format of language to do so. However, thinking in terms of images, spatial relations and feelings–among other thought-modes–are also very viable and useful ways to use a mind.  In my opinion, a balanced approach to thought includes all of these and other thought-modes that I can’t put in words at all.  A human interested in the development of his or her mind will try to use as many thought modes as she or he is capable of using.  The above list (which is not at all comprehensive; it’s a mere beginning) refers to words as containers of meaning in interpersonal usages.  The worst thing that can happen to a word-as-interpersonal-carrier-of-meaning is that it loses its meaning. That would be like mailing an empty box.  In the figurative sense, a word without meaning is like a sword without a sharp edge: it might still make an impressive decoration, but it isn’t actually a usable tool any more.

On a more hopeful note, the word “choice“–despite years of abuse, neglect, overuse and misunderstanding–is still one of the most powerful ideas known, both as a word and as an idea.  The only word that surpasses “choice” in power and importance is “life”.

So LIVE.

And CHOOSE.

If you choose to use words to organize your own mind, consider how specifically or non-specifically you are choosing to order your thoughts.  If you use words to communicate, choose abstract, meaningless words when it doesn’t matter what idea you want to convey and specific, meaningful words when your communication needs to carry a specific meaning.

Inside your own head, all your words have the meanings you place in them.  All of your internal words have their best and strongest meanings.  All of the words on the list above are still good internal words.  But you may want to say them to yourself very softly and gently, treating your own concepts as delicate, skittish imaginary-but-loved friends of your soul.  Love can be a wonderful friend to keep inside yourself.  When you let your thought-friends out to play in the world outside your head, let them play as actions.  They carry all their meanings that way.

If I keep those things in the forefront of my forebrain, I have an easier time making sense of the rest.

If you know any other words that are especially meaningful or meaningless, please expound in comments.

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