Words

We lack words: and we have too many of them.

Contradictory yet factual.

It is the same way the Swahili will tell you Haraka haraka haina baraka (Hurry Hurry has no Blessing) while at the same time telling you that Chelewa chelewa utapata mwana si wako (Continue in you lateness and you’ll find that the child is not yours).

While one proverb admonishes haste, the other seems to urge one into some sense of haste and/or urgency.

Thus is the nature of the world. There is no absolute truth. Different, and at times conflicting approaches, work quite well for different people. That is why someone may seek to leave the lease life and purchase their own home, then engage in whatever business they desire to. On the other hand, a different person will find success by diverting such resources to an investment, while retaining their rental premises for what may seem to the earlier individual as a costly expense.

Life is a single player game. Approach it as you will.

In any case, with regards to language, it often seems that we have so many words. In my various readings, I often encounter words whose meaning I only vaguely know. Phrases such as vis-à-vis are good examples. I can attest to having sought the meaning of this phrase over 5 times in my history both in physical dictionaries and on Google. The meaning never seems to stick though. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

On the other hand, it may seem as if we lack words to fully describe our experience. How many times have we had thoughts that we found difficult to express verbally? Isn’t it frustrating, being aware of concepts that one cannot adequately explain to others? A telepathic world will be a whole new world, albeit a bit confusing at first. It will be gratifying to be able to communicate one’s thoughts directly to another person, but how will those thoughts be organized? Are thoughts ever organized? It reminds me of a meme I came across that claimed that one’s mind is like having 17 browser tabs open, with four of them frozen. Furthermore, one’s not sure where the music is coming from.

The concept of having too many words is funnily depicted in this Awkward Puppets Video.