Wish I Could Communicate
Call me nuts, but I do not see any difference between this sentence and, say, a tree. Yes, one is a string of words and another is a being, but still both are expressions, the former communicating idea and the latter communicating being.
Nor is there a difference between words and me, for that matter, for after all, the Good Book tells us all creation is but a word the Creator uttered, i.e. ‘be’ and we have become. It is for that reason that we have to revere words when we utter them as much as we respect ourselves. In essence, we are uttering ourselves, so to speak. (Could this also be why John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”). I also communicate without ever uttering a word, just like a tree, in my being. However, unlike a tree, I have to build through interactions the ‘being’ I communicate, a curse I have inherited from my progenitors for eating off of a tree they were ordained not to. It is called presence.
Of the two means of communication, words and being, being is the most profound. Thus Steven Covey says, “In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do”.
I also do not see any difference between, say, Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech before the 1775 Virginia convention and a lion hunting its prey. (Speech is action, but a speech, even as impassioned and lofty as Patrick Henry’s is is but easier, shallower, and less profound than action, even as base as a lion chasing its prey, that we perform inside our head, by whip cracking our tongue). True action is stepping outside of your head and interacting with the world.
A lion has only action, apart from being, to express itself, whilst we have language in our disposal, yet of the two means of communication, action is the more profound. Should you wish this fact to be attested, ask a lover if she has to choose between a lover telling her how much he loves her, in as flowery language as possible, or show her how much she means to him, in the way he treats her, in the little things he does and does not do everyday. Action speaks louder. Wise is the person who lets his actions do the talking.
Language is the most shallow, unreliable, and powerless means of communications — it is nothing more than noise — yet, sadly, that is the means we run to for communication. Real, deep, profound communication happens in its absence, in silence, first in actions. But action, in humans, is not as free of human fakery as being; we fake action as we fake language. What is meant by action, here, is genuine actions, ones that are in congruent with what you value most. These genuine every day actions in time accrue to form a genuine being. Then, you will not need to communicate in words nor even in action. Your presence will do the communication. People would say, at the sight of you, “This is greatness” as they would, “This is a tree”.
This is the point I am trying to reel in home: you, your actions and your words are all part of the same phenomenon called communication. If you open your eyes and observe, you will see that the largest portion of your communication already transpires long before you open your mouth or even move a muscles, in your presence. Build the presence you wish to communicate.
