Sunday Musings – May 3, 2020
In the early days of the internet if one wanted to search for information one had to be very precise when typing in the search information. There was limited information available and the key word function was not nearly as developed. Now one may want to be as precise as possible to limit the number of potential sites one brings up.
Automatic spell check, on the other hand, may make a selection for one that changes what one thought one was communicating. If one types fairly rapidly and has a lot of emails or texts to which one wants to respond one may not stop to edit before one sends only to be either amused or embarrassed when the recipient lets one know what they actually receive.
Those of us using a search engine and/or communicating often via text or email are aware that we are sending commands to the search engines or using language to communicate some message to the recipient which will initiate commands in their brains.
Anytime we use language we are directing our brain to call up the entire history of our use of the word or phrase. Each experience is associated with positive, negative or perhaps fairly neutral emotions and thoughts. If one types in in the word hit in a search engine one may get a list of sporting events (hitting a ball), gambling events, or violent events. Likewise, the word kill calls up a lot of associations. the word “kill” may be used to describe how one did on a test or some other task as well as the killing of people and animals.
Anyone who has studied the use of language in the United is aware of the use of violent words we use in talking about sporting events, business dealings, and personal relationships. Those using those violent works my have a lot of positive and negative associations with the words. Chances are one is not conscious of one’s entire history of the use of those words or the history of others who hear or read one’s words.
This morning I was listening to a March 2020 broadcast of an On Being podcast which features a conversation between the host Krista Tippett and Ocean Vuong, the poet, essayist, and novelist. As a person who was born in Hong Kong, lived for a time in a refugee camp, lives as a person of Asian descent in the United States, is Buddhist and is gay, Mr. Vuong is acutely aware of the power of each word he uses. One may want to read his poem, The Touch, for example or listen to what he muses about language during his conversation with Ms. Tippett.
Poets have to carefully consider each word they use – even the bridge words – both because they have only limited space in which to communicate and each word reveals their nakedness; their pains, joys, passion and fragility.
Most are not as conscious as the poet of the impact of the words the use; of the layers of pain, confusion, excitement and fear each word unlocks in each memory bank; of the fact that each word opens its wings carrying all the emotions which the actions of that word have evoked throughout the history of the speaker and the listener. The listener will only, at best, hear an approximation of what the speaker was communicating from their experience.
The minister in a Christian Church might repeat the words of Psalm 19:14 before delivering his or her sermon, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and redeemer.”
What if each of us were committed to a similar intention to all who are touched by all the words we hear? Perhaps our prayer could be, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart tickle the heart and mind of all who they touch.”
Written May 3, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
In the early days of the internet if one wanted to search for information one had to be very precise when typing in the search information. There was limited information available and the key word function was not nearly as developed. Now one may want to be as precise as possible to limit the number of potential sites one brings up.
Automatic spell check, on the other hand, may make a selection for one that changes what one thought one was communicating. If one types fairly rapidly and has a lot of emails or texts to which one wants to respond one may not stop to edit before one sends only to be either amused or embarrassed when the recipient lets one know what they actually receive.
Those of us using a search engine and/or communicating often via text or email are aware that we are sending commands to the search engines or using language to communicate some message to the recipient which will initiate commands in their brains.
Anytime we use language we are directing our brain to call up the entire history of our use of the word or phrase. Each experience is associated with positive, negative or perhaps fairly neutral emotions and thoughts. If one types in in the word hit in a search engine one may get a list of sporting events (hitting a ball), gambling events, or violent events. Likewise, the word kill calls up a lot of associations. the word “kill” may be used to describe how one did on a test or some other task as well as the killing of people and animals.
Anyone who has studied the use of language in the United is aware of the use of violent words we use in talking about sporting events, business dealings, and personal relationships. Those using those violent works my have a lot of positive and negative associations with the words. Chances are one is not conscious of one’s entire history of the use of those words or the history of others who hear or read one’s words.
This morning I was listening to a March 2020 broadcast of an On Being podcast which features a conversation between the host Krista Tippett and Ocean Vuong, the poet, essayist, and novelist. As a person who was born in Hong Kong, lived for a time in a refugee camp, lives as a person of Asian descent in the United States, is Buddhist and is gay, Mr. Vuong is acutely aware of the power of each word he uses. One may want to read his poem, The Touch, for example or listen to what he muses about language during his conversation with Ms. Tippett.
Poets have to carefully consider each word they use – even the bridge words – both because they have only limited space in which to communicate and each word reveals their nakedness; their pains, joys, passion and fragility.
Most are not as conscious as the poet of the impact of the words the use; of the layers of pain, confusion, excitement and fear each word unlocks in each memory bank; of the fact that each word opens its wings carrying all the emotions which the actions of that word have evoked throughout the history of the speaker and the listener. The listener will only, at best, hear an approximation of what the speaker was communicating from their experience.
The minister in a Christian Church might repeat the words of Psalm 19:14 before delivering his or her sermon, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and redeemer.”
What if each of us were committed to a similar intention to all who are touched by all the words we hear? Perhaps our prayer could be, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart tickle the heart and mind of all who they touch.”
Written May 3, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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