Let X Make A Statement...

"There's a word for it 
And words don't mean a thing 
There's name for it 
And names make all the difference in the world 

Some things can never be spoken 
Some things cannot be pronounced 
That word does not exist in any language 
It will never be uttered by a human mouth"

~Talking Heads, "Give Me Back My Name" 

One of the more underappreciated gems on the "Little Creatures" album. With so few words, so much is said. Ironically so, because the song is about words in a sense. The cover of the album is strangely animistic, with smiling or frowning mountains and clouds and continents with faces, and people riding panthers of some sort. In the distance, the landscape appears flooded.

The contrast: words and names. Words are proper for things, names are proper for beings. There are things, knowledge, awareness, experience present in beings that will never be present in words. Is this not your own very practical experience? No one will ever in this world know all that is in your heart and mind. In my own experience, I know that I do not know everything worth knowing, but I have friends and they know many things that I as a human being am not equipped to know alone. Do I have roots that reach into the Dreaming, like trees do? If I do, I know that they are not as strong or deep as their roots. They show me. 

Same with people, if you encounter something you don't know, I bet you probably know someone who does know it. But even after they tell you, your knowing that one thing doesn't render their knowing redundant. If you extract one fact from someone who has worked with automotive repair their whole life, you can have that fact. Their knowing of auto repair however, the work and care they have put into it all their lives, you don't have and wouldn't unless you spend as long as they have on it, maybe not even then, and there is only so much time in one life.

Of all the forms of human hubris, and there are many, perhaps the worst is to believe that we can encapsulate everything worth knowing in words. We know nothing. Hell, even scientists say we know practically nothing about the universe really, we only know the easy bits. Most of the universe is made up of this stuff we named dark matter and dark energy, but naming it doesn't mean we really have a clue what it is. We don't have an effing clue what it is. We cannot even be positive that the words "dark matter and energy" even remotely refer to what it is, that there is really any "stuff" there in our common understanding, it is something completely not understood. And yet people go through life all the time thinking that they have everything all lined up neat and tidy, a world encapsulated in words. They don't. They don't have one freaking clue what the world is. None of us do. Just for some sick reason it makes us more secure to think we do, but we're clueless. 

Having friends who know more doesn't ultimately resolve the mystery of the world, it just allows us to know more about some things than we did. And sometimes it allows the mystery to deepen and expand, or rather it disrupts our belief that there isn't much mystery. The mystery is already as deep as deep can be. 

There are things I have experienced, profound things, that I will never be able to tell you. Those words do not exist. Only the Dreaming contains all those dreams, and "the Dreaming" is too, just a name. A name for something I cannot tell you and do not completely know, any more than I can completely tell you about yourself or completely know who you are. You are ultimately a mystery that transcends my words or anyone else's. Even your own. 

You must dive into such mysteries yourself, but go with friends. With names, not words. 

Let X make a statement
Let breath pass through those cracked lips
That man was my hero
And now that word has been taken from us

Some things can never be spoken
Some things cannot be pronounced
That word does not exist in any language
It will never be uttered by a human mouth