There are days when we search and search for just the right words: a quotation, a poetry fragment, a lyric, a written thought that captures the sentiment rattling around in our brains. Sometimes, we meet with no success, and the emotion remains trapped, unnamed. Other times, a bit of language leaps out to convey exactly what we feel. We are tremendously grateful to those who have gone before us and inscribed the words for us to find when our own words are insufficient.
It is odd to think that each human's experience, even with the use of particular words, is unique; and that though someone else's words may speak to us, the truth remains that their mental picture and the composition of their feelings behind those words may be very different from our own. We have only a glimpse into their inner world through their words. We can parse, and study, and assume or guess or imagine, and yet, we may never understand. All we can do is try.
Words: like little boats, rowing between the shores of souls. Words, sometimes as obscure as omens and portents in the stones or the bones. Words, at other times as clear doorways, through which -- although we cannot step -- we can glimpse others' inner rooms. If we had words enough to propel us across those thresholds, would we be brave enough to do so?
Words are like the god Janus, they face outward and inward at once. - John O'Donohue, Anam Cara
This Janus coin was found through the interwebs, here.
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Very profound post. Let's discuss.
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