20 - jerking off to the dictionary

I don't know if it a sudden rush of inspiration or 4 AM delerium, but I have come to discover how amazing words are.

Whether writing and drawing through them (I've constructed 6 poems in the past 2 days) or dissecting Chinese characters as I just did for a friend, words fill me with a sense of amazement. That a single word can change a smile from a frown even if the meaning is the same is to me both amazing and amazingly powerful. We rely on words more than anything to exist in this world and words are just...I can't even describe. Words are just amazing.

This weekend really put me into focus for some things and the power and breadth of words is one of them. Meeting people who respect art and respect how important it is to speak like you mean it was an eye opener for me and I've found myself struggling for that one word and waiting for it, rather than letting myself settle for anything less than the right connotation and the right rhythm for the moment. Words take what I intend to say and can with one letter flip it on its head or put it right side up where it should be.

Samurai. 侍. A man (人) in front of a temple (寺). Back in the day, temples provided spiritual, academic, and physical training for those who could afford it and were willing to put themselves through it. They produced men and women (though more men because, after all, this wasn't the best of times for women) who were well rounded with a sense of justice and spiritual/academic growth. Samurai were these people in the society, providing the arm of the law but not without poetic understand of where they fit int the landscape of the world.

.....GAH. In 9 strokes you have the history of the most iconic figures in Japanese history. NINE STROKES. Imagine what happens when you study the context in which the word has been used as a national symbol of pride and so forth, etc on and on.

The english language has so many shades of meaning to it that it's impossible to not understand words and communicate effectively. If the connotation is off by anything more than a syllable, the entire meaning of the sentence can be jammed. The fact that a person can envision a landscape without looking at a picture or being at the landscape simply by the way the author decides to throw letters at the page is amazing to me.

Words. Are....I can't even describe it in words they're so amazing. Words are the shit.

And I hope they don't degenerate anymore into this bootylicious bullcrap.