A Human Strategy #511: Ridiculous attempts to redeem what is lost to expression
511
I am sure and confident, until I open my mouth to
speak. This is the squeeze of our
condition. We must speak to express our
deepest feeling, but the act of this expression requires the compromise of
individual feelings into universally accepted symbols. We are too big for the box of grammar and
lose our tails when the box closes itself into a sentence. “But humans have no tails!” is the objection. We remain silent, for with the loss of our
tails we have also lost our proof, and every attempt to prove incites laughter.
We must speak, but speaking is incomplete. We feel our meaning, but speak in
absurdities. We are vessels that must
pour out this something within but
find no vessel without.
Perhaps what would satisfy us most would be a silent
communication, one which required less of the pouring out of “mind” or
“reflection” and more of the gratification of a total experience: for example,
the sudden realization of potential ... or the exhibition of strength and
beauty — an ecstatic pouring out and receiving, at the same time ... not really
understanding this ecstatic here and now ... yet having it! We identify
our basic need for exaltation, as opposed to what we merely want. Once in this exalted state, we do not satisfy
the “need” for communication, but have
eliminated that need altogether. The
superfluity is. It knows nothing of “need” or “want.” It is enough to spill over. If there are no vessels to receive and
contain ... what is that to the experience?