What's one thing that matters to you? Just one thing. One thing, no matter how tiny and insignificant. One teeny weeny thing that you could write pages and pages on - or one huge thing, whose significance to you is impossible to articulate.
I could tell you about anything.
Spotify. Gigs. Wikipedia. Rainbows. Manga. The NHS. The number 7.
Supporting unknown bands and discovering new music. Windows. Wrapping paper. Tutus. Boys' jeans. String. Hair dye.
Idividuality. People with big noses. Toothpaste. Text messages. Scars.
Geodes. Shoelaces. Smiles.
That feeling you get when you see someone you've been missing.
So right now, I am going to tell you one thing which matters to me. Words.
Think about it - ha, see, you've already started. We think however we like, in colours or shapes or numbers or feelings or sounds, but as soon as we start to try and describe it, we have to use words. Words do their best to take all those impossible things and wrestle them into submission so they make some sort of sense. Words convey impossible thoughts and ideas. Even if you can't describe something in English, there will be a word for it in some other language. The way perfume smells as it lingers in the air, the smell of it leaving - it's a clumsy sentence in English, but in French you have "sillage".
Words create my favourite things in the world; lyrics, poetry, novels, articles, websites. You can explain to people all kinds of abstract ideas. The way you phrase things can change people's moods, and different words can carry different connotations.
"The weather is fine" makes you think of a clear day. Maybe a bit grey. But a typically British, "fine" day. Compare it to -
"The weather is balmy" makes you think of gentle warmth. You can taste the ice lollies and tissues and sunshine like a watery egg.
Words matter to me because without them everything would be done in pictures and sounds - which is all fine, but why do we teach language to children? So they can communicate. Music and pictures speak in ways language can't manage, but words can explain things that music and pictures can't.
So, if you've just read this, leave me a comment about one thing - anything - that matters to you. And your favourite word, while you're at it. Mine is "mellifluous", which has the same route as the name "Melissa" - Greek for honey. Mellifluous is a word to describe things which flow like honey; so, the word mellifluous is itself mellifluous. Aren't words fun?
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Melifluous was my class word of the week a couple of months back. It's a good one, definitely onomatopoeic.
ReplyDeleteI want to talk about DNA. It probably wasn't exactly what you had in mind, but that's life really. Which wasn't actually intended as a pun...
DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleaic Acid. And when you were formed, as a tiny little ball of cells, all these strings and strings of DNA were put into an incredible, unreplicable code which makes who you are. If one tiny little bit of this code, in all the metres of DNA in any single one of your foetal cells is wrong, you could be born without arms or feet, or with sickle cell anaemia or a speech impediment. They decide what colour your hair and eyes are, how tall you have the potential to grow, whether you're right or left handed and whether you'd be better at playing drums or guitar. But they're still just a chemical; a liquid you can extract from, say, a kiwi fruit with just a simple reaction.
To me, that's a miracle.