The wonder of Words

Remember the old nursery rhyme, "Sticks and Stones may break my bones but Words will never hurt me?" I am of the opinion that who ever made that one up had not only been hurt by words but they were bitter about it!;<)

Words are some of the most powerful things that we can possess or that can possess us. I love Language. Language of any kind. I am not proficient in any of it but just the idea that we have the ability to put into words, our deepest thoughts, is an awesome thing to realize. And then when you get into the study of different langauges it really opens up. Tonight I learned how to tell someone to "behave" in Spanish and it was beautiful! I don't see how someone could be rude in doing it? It's just too pretty to hear!

We Americans have the philosophy that "we say what we mean and we mean what we say," and we are "get to the point" personalities that don't have time for the complexity of language. For example, If you were to ask me how I felt about Debbie, I would most assuredly tell you that I love her and I do so with all my heart but if you were to ask me how I felt about Pizza, guess what I would say? Yeah, I love it. Now, is the love I have for Pizza the same? Not in any sense of the understanding but the language is pretty much the same. I would have to use adjectives to describe the difference of the meaning of the same word.

Old World languages are not like that. For example, In John 21 you have the familiar story of Jesus asking Peter, "Do you love me?" Now reading the King James without understanding of the Ancient Greek, one could easily surmise that Jesus was losing it here, because he asks the same question 3 different times. But in the Greek, Jesus uses the word, "Agape" meaning an eternal, unconditional love that knows no boundaries. Peter would answer with the word, "Phileo" meaning, "Yeah, I love you like a Brother." Two words with totally different applications of meaning.

So why am I on this rant? I'm not really sure. I just find it funny that when we try to express how we feel about someone else, we usually end up saying something like, "there just aren't enough words." Well, maybe there are and maybe we should take the time to rediscover them? Just a thought for the day.