Words, Words, Words

They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects.
- Dorothy L. Sayers

I drink a pot of earl grey. Tea is always the perfect companion for thinking.

A huge part of what I write about and care about looks at the importance and power of words. Dorothy L. Sayers, of course, is a source of profound observation and voice from her time (1920's-1940's) and what she saw happening in culture. It had come to progress into a shift where children were not taught or encouraged to think, but only be stuffed with knowledge on "subjects", enough to pass the required exams but not to retain or actually understand any of it, and worst of all, not engaged by it or think about it. That ultimately leads to a lack of thinking for themselves, which is of great importance for our future. If we are not masters of the words we use, we display no deep understanding, and we follow others just because it is what was always done, without questioning or thinking about if that is best. If we have no base of internal storage of knowledge, we rely solely on external knowledge and words that often deceive, or that we do not understand.

We do not seek, therefore, to broaden or improve ourselves and the world, if we do not think for ourselves, and do not understand the true meaning of words we use. You may be surprised how many people use words they do not understand. We have the responsibility to know and be aware of the original meaning of words. They can do more harm than good if we mis-use them.

It all begins with words. Reading good books and thinking deeply, especially using goodness, beauty, and imagination as the sources of nourishment, because as we read and learn we are going to encounter darkness, as our world has dark things lingering in its past. We do need to learn and know about such things, and then we need to counter that with truth of beauty and goodness that is also present and can be overlooked.

What is why I write along these lines - focusing on imagination and beauty because our souls need nourishment. There is so much darkness in the world - things we have to deal with, which I cannot take away, but I can write to invoke goodness by way of provoking a reader's imagination to awaken and pay attention, for there is something good to be brave for. You can be a light in the darkness.

Words are a powerful tool we can use for good or ill. It breaks my heart to see words used for ill purposes, and the mis-use or purposefully misleading allocation of words, which is something so deceptive, most people would never notice the techniques used. If we become deep readers, thinkers, and learners, we will question what we hear or read, comparing it to what we know to be true. We shall be better equipped if we read deeply and become acquainted with past thinkers. Even if we do not agree with them, we will know what they proposed, why it worked, or did not work. We need to be aware when we are being deceived, so we can blunt their edge, and fling it back.