In order to continue learning from the human body, we need to think about these things. We need to continue to learn from these extraordinary moments, like the seizure Dr. Jill Taylor had. How would she have known about the feeling of "nirvana" if a blood vessel hadn't exploded in her brain? How would she have been able to know the feeling of being bigger than herself, and everyone around her? These issues matter because they can tell us what or bodies are capable of when something goes wrong; what our minds are capable of.
What Robert Hass said, once you lose passion, you lose the meaning of the words, is something that we should never stop thinking about. If words no longer mean anything because no one is using them as they were intended, to express feeling, or thought, then we have failed the language(s) we were given to communicate. In order to hold onto one of the very best parts about being human, being able to communicate, we must use it and use it right, or what's the point? To continue to thrive as human beings, we must use the knowledge that we were given.
These things, thought and feeling and passion, are concepts that could be taken away as easily as they were given. Illnesses or accidents or old age or any number of other things could cause us to lose these basic human instincts, and so we must keep using them when we have them because, one day, when it is out of our control, they could be taken away from us.
As human beings we are gifted with thought and language. Often we take these higher abilities for granted, failing to notice the infinitely complex systems at work during every second of our existence. As Robert Hass expressed in his poem, it is difficult to determine whether words are empty symbols that can never describe the real world objects they reference or if the words give greater meaning to reality, creating a richer depth to some ephemeral memory of a scent or scene or sound. The way we perceive the world sets the foundation of reality itself. Such as in the case of Dr. Jill Taylor, a single moment can completely alter the way you experience the world. Without language and words, the reality we experience blurs together. The ideas brought up by Hass and Taylor are so incredibly important because they try to explain the strange phenomenon of language that raises humans above the other members of the animal kingdom. If at the end of our lives the only thing left to us was a mental log of our experiences, I would prefer to have as much written down as possible.
ReplyDeleteYou make many concrete points but I do disagree with one point in particular. You and Robert Hassan agree that with passion comes the meaning of words. I as well agree that passions can give a word more meaning or specific meaning but not that without passion I belive there is still meaning behind language. You could read a book in monotone and still find a meaning. There is a meaning behind everything. The meaning come from how you precive it. The statement you made that "one of the very best parts about being human [is] being able to communicate", I find untrue. All other mammals can communicate within their own species. They can not use language but still can develop complex relationship. Language is something we should appreciate and not take for granted . But also we don't need to be so serious about it because it is not necessary for survival.
ReplyDeleteYou make many concrete points but I do disagree with one point in particular. You and Robert Hassan agree that with passion comes the meaning of words. I as well agree that passions can give a word more meaning or specific meaning but not that without passion I belive there is still meaning behind language. You could read a book in monotone and still find a meaning. There is a meaning behind everything. The meaning come from how you precive it. The statement you made that "one of the very best parts about being human [is] being able to communicate", I find untrue. All other mammals can communicate within their own species. They can not use language but still can develop complex relationship. Language is something we should appreciate and not take for granted . But also we don't need to be so serious about it because it is not necessary for survival.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the issues matter because language is a part of what makes us us. When it fails we tend to think it’ll be this awful and unfortunate event. The thought of one day waking up and not being able to use my language is actually scary. It would be losing a part of myself. Losing the voice inside my head, the words I use to think, dream, talk, and read is losing myself. Language failing would simply cause a failure to communicate with one another and perhaps with our own self as well. How do I let this person know what I’m thinking or feeling? The authors however, don’t feel negative towards language failing. Instead they feel peace. We should care about this in order to want to learn more about this. Do we really need to lose language in order to feel peace? Are there other ways our human mind can feel that same peace without losing language? These issues should matter to us so we can further investigate questions like these and to better understand our complex human mind.
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