Words Matter

 

“No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn’t understand, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language.”
― Jacques Derrida

 

In my experience there is nothing mere about semantics. Words are powerful symbols that many live by. You can call the same entity an angelic being or a demonic force and by doing so alienate a good portion of the people reading. You can say someone or something is retarded and some would nod their heads along with you while any who either had a developmental delay or who loved or supported them would be offended. Something similar would happen by using the word gay. We all have terms that offend us, words which we are quick to see as victimizing no matter the intent behind them. Words which tend to cause either otherness or offence based on a given reality tunnel. If you have never met any one who was gay and had no real experience with people who are classified as developmentally delayed than when you hear those terms so offensive to some, it might as well be a foreign language. When they are words that have been used to describe you or someone you know or care for then it becomes personal. The above are examples. There are many others depending on paradigm, people known and phrases used. Words do matter just not the same words to all people.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Red DreamsRed Dreams by G A Rosenberg

 

Moving Through the MachineryMoving Through the Machinery by G A Rosenberg

 

Meaningful, Meaning Less

 

“The poet…is the man of metaphor: while the philosopher is interested only in the truth of meaning, beyond even signs and names, and the sophist manipulates empty signs…the poet plays on the multiplicity of signifieds.”
— Jacques Derrida

 

Use my words
to find their meaning
play with their tone
to find their truth
concepts, shadowy but obscure
may only come from images
reflected in the mind’s eye
I use my meaning
to find my words
rolling from tongue to song
to ear to hear
what resonates
and is returned
Sense the tense
in words and truth
Release it
and it changes.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Guarded ReactionGuarded Reaction by G A Rosenberg

 

Marsh TulipMarsh Tulip by G A Rosenberg