...a world without words

I thought I loved words until today.

The reason behind my change of heart is one thing but the challenge and focus it brought to my thinking was quite another.

So words fulfil a multitude of functions, as well as enabling understanding to pass from person(s) to person(s). They can define intellect, express emotions; they can be lyrical, witty, angry, and sad. They can be meaningless, misunderstood, misused, overused, and abused. Some are fashionable, others lose their place in modern language and some develop over centuries and migrate from one language to another. They can be written or spoken, be shouted or whispered, emphasised or glossed over and the list seems endless.

However surely the power of words is really in their delivery and interpretation? Otherwise they are just marks on a page or undecipherable nonsense.

What one person writes or says may simply be understood or misunderstood differently by the recipient. Words may be affected by the context & environment they are delivered & received within. The exact same words may resonate completely differently today from yesterday.

So are words the best form of communication? And what would a world without words be like? And what mechanisms would we develop to communicate?

Our other senses would have to be fine tuned, much as an individual who has already experienced the loss of a sense(s). Would emotions such as fear, sadness, love, and joy be more truthfully interpreted through other senses such as seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, without the use of words?  Or would there still be the issues of definition and meaning?

I don’t know.

But what I do know is that seeking truthful expression and interpretation is important to me and so expressing what is required without words might feel liberating.

It feels like words, written or spoken are tools that we all too easily assume the ability to use, however the caveat should be ‘Beware’; as the power of words should never be underestimated.