The path of words

Communication among people might turn out to be the most delicate of undertakings when we take the time to think about it. Transforming thoughts and feelings into words, and phrasing them are two entirely different activities. Moreover, there is an entire transitional process that lies between these two, which predetermines the success, or lack of it, of reaching someone with an idea. I am not going to engage in long instructive conversations on how to tackle words, but rather try to explain briefly how I see the abstract path of transformation of thoughts and feelings into words.

Let’s imagine that between the formation of our thoughts and the actual utterance there is a path or a road. A distance that the thoughts travel until they reach a prêt-à-l’emploi [1] state which I imagine resembles the synapse[2] of a neuron in size and function. It certainly does not exist in everyone’s head. But let us concentrate more on the nature of this transitional process.

The time it takes your thoughts and feelings to transform into words is not any different than the time it takes your food to be cooked. In both, there are conditions that are not at your command, but those conditions can be studied. I know your oven comes with a manual and you are not born in this world with a book in hand teaching you what to say and how to say it. Imagine how convenient that would be, to have a unique personalized manual all to yourself.

Who has this path?

People, who take the extra time to weigh up their words, understand their nuance and appraise the circumstances in which they are to use them. They have that path. Do not get me wrong. I am not referring to those people who hesitantly double-check their words fearing that they might say something wrong and then unsure of what to utter just put words and words in sentences, that end up meaning nothing. This process of feeling the texture of words and appraising the nature of the situation occurs rapidly much like the transmissions in the synapse.

Some people are born orators and others are self-taught. The difference being that the endowed by nature with this gift do not think of the process, instead it comes naturally to them. Hence, they might not even be aware of its existence. In contrast, those who acquire the knowledge of words and how to tackle them are pretty aware of the transformation, because they cause it. They create this path to assign the right words for their feelings, because they try to act in accordance to what they speak. All this does not take them longer than a few blinks of an eye.

A few blinks of an eye and I was back from my reverie of images into the world of words.

[1] Ready for use (in fr.)

[2] An extremely small gap region where nerve impulses are transmitted and received, encompassing the “transmitter of impulses”.