Some words in a moment of peace

There are many things in the world which annoy me.

Yet time and time again, I have these moments of clarity where the world makes sense and everything is good. It’s hopeful.

For a long time now I’ve wanted to share what’s in my head with the world. Some of it is good, some of it is bad. The bad I can ignore for the most part. Habits that we repeat tend to grow and become autonomous.

But the good things?

I’ve never been good at writing, really. Even when I wrote professionally, there was always an anxiety in me, whispering “these words don’t mean what you want them to.”

So I found myself relying on dictionaries. I speak three languages, to I thought it would be wise to rely largely on the collected wisdom regarding language.

Yet that didn’t work out the way I expected. Time and time again I was faced with people (usually native speakers), who used the words differently. Often ignorant of what they actually mean.

We see this every day. I’m not going to nitpick, but there are so many words which mean specific things, yet are said as if they don’t.

Here’s the thing about words: they’re ‘pointers at’ particular categories of natural phenomena that we get to observe.

If you say ‘apple’, you’re referring to a category of natural phenomena that meets certain specific criteria in your sensory system.

An apple might have a certain color, weight, take up a certain volume of space, its skin can have a number of different textures, it can taste a number of ways…

Yet all those too are words that describe categories of things we see out in the world.

If we focus on the words, on the categories, on the descriptors, then we’re missing a critical part of being. We’re missing the object itself.

Words are abstract. They’re basically groups of sounds (and eventually symbols) that are associated with particular meanings.

These meanings in turn are derived (abstracted) from out experiences, which in turn stem from our interactions with the natural phenomena (things) in our environment.

So words are at least 3-4 levels off from reality.

This isn’t a useful observation by itself, yet we can then derive (ha!) a few useful observations.

• Reality does not lie. It has no capacity to do so. Things are as they are.
  • You can either accept it, or you can struggle against it.
    • Accepting reality leads to peace and kindness.
    • Struggling against reality leads to suffering and anguish.
  • This doesn’t mean ‘accept it with open arms.’ It means accept that what you see, what you’re experiencing, is real.
• Doing things in the world is less abstract, less divorced from reality.
  • Therefore observing how people act yields more truth than hearing them describe what they are doing.
• Eating an apple is not the same as describing eating an apple.
  • Therefore if someone makes claims about things, it is wise to ask for evidence that it is so.
• Thinking is further from reality than direct interaction.
  • Therefore it is wise to quiet down and act.
• Thinking, verbalizing, writing and talking are abstract, and therefore extremely prone to being false.
  • Therefore be careful with your speech, as it may not be accurately reflecting the world.
• There are people who speak carelessly, or intentionally in such a way as to misrepresent reality.
  • Taking a little time to verify their words it worth more than losing time/money/health by blindly trusting them.
  • In cases where it is impossible to verify, it’s often best to ask for evidence.

Well, that’s a bunch of thoughts.

I suppose the bottom line for me when evaluating who I can trust, and who I should avoid is integrity.

If someone is acting inconsistently with what they say (i.e. they make promises or commitments and then don’t fulfill them), that’s a huge red flag.

If someone is speaking inconsistently across time (i.e. they say one thing today, and a contradictory thing tomorrow), that’s a huge red flag.

Consistency and predictability is what allows us to trust each other. The only way for this to be true is when the things we say align with how the world is.

Words mean things. Please help others understand what you mean by using them carefully.

Thank you.