It's Complicated

Language does not change the fabric of the universe. We could, for instance, call a rose a cabbage, and that would not alter its smell. But, it might make us regard the smell differently. I cannot disregard the way in which language functions in the world to illuminate and transform reality. Language begins at the border of the sensory world, by naming those things we can sense. But it goes so much farther than our senses can take us. It is not just a list we choose from to name the most tangible parts of our experience. It transmits our thoughts, our identities, our hopes and our fears. It helps us heal or destroy the confidence of others. It can inspire or it can incite heinous acts. The concepts it helps us articulate are just as real to us as the world we move around in. Language matters. It has power. The study of language is a serious endeavor if we wish to connect with other human beings; if we wish to express ourselves as fully as possible; if we wish to be responsible human beings. We need to understand its power and its limits. We need to increase our vocabularies, understand its structures and rules, and learn to connect, expand and detail our thoughts and idea.

I have spent my life as as a student of language. I do not understand those who find it contemptible to use "big" words or to look up what a word means before it is used. I do not understand how language can be regarded as unimportant or how we can dissociate language from the context and from the culture out of which it emerges. We create language to serve us. It is always a product of who we are, the experiences we've had, and the time in which we live. We have become sloppy with our use and understanding of language. We speak and write in generalities and assume no responsibility for our choices. "That's just my opinion" is the rallying cry for the intellectually lazy, who cannot then be held accountable for their lack of specificity or example or accuracy. We speak to each other in memes, the disastrous offspring of social media. Televised sound bytes telescope our attention span and our ability to be descriptive. There is no time for such nonsense as a well-thought and articulated argument, spun carefully to include our proofs and the logic by which they are connected. Thinking, speaking and writing in today's popular "shorthand" is shortchanging us all.

Language is there to serve us, if we let it. But we must take it seriously. It is a tool, unlike any other. Before we can wield it, we must understand how it works and what it can, ultimately, do. We all must be serious students of language. It is all we have to connect with each other; to comfort, console, inspire and inform. It is all we have to help us enact change and to grow as a species. To neglect its study or to trivialize it is to do ourselves, our children and our future a great injustice. We must make ourselves lifelong students of language. Go back and hit the books. And don't forget to thank those who have helped you to understand its intricacies. Language matters. Education matters. They are the keys to our future.