Words and the Word

There is Divine power in a word. Not just “The Word” but any word. Any word is a miraculous imaginative act. Something is perceived or thought, which is a colossal miracle in itself if you really consider all that is involved in perceiving anything at all. Then that thought or perception is translated into a symbol which each culture has agreed are words. Then that word is announced to the world through a spoken or written act. Then the receiver of that word moves through the whole process in reverse to reach some sort of understanding. Does the receiver always interpret the symbols and meanings correctly? Of course not. I would even say that the interpretations are rarely exactly what the word-creator precisely meant. All words are this way.     Panda, beautiful, love, nice, flower, darkening, compel, flagrant, tickle … all words are symbols. And as symbols, both generated and received, they are acts of incredible imagination. We live inside symbols. Much of our understanding of anything comes through symbol and metaphor as veiled representations of whatever is “out there”. It is the only way that we can communicate anything at all.

Getting caught up in debate or argument about whether my symbol is more correct or better than your symbol is fruitless, distracting, and often destructive. The task should always be to curiously and humbly enter all symbols, words, and stories as if the very act of imagination is the place of Divine inspiration.    

Each person’s act of imagining is a revelation of sorts. It is the miracle of the symbol-creating mind doing it’s Creator-given task of striving toward understanding and “truth”. Each word is an invitation to join the Creator as we create. Each word is God revealed because each word is a creative act revealing our desire to participate with the Spirit and enjoy connection with others. We relate in symbolic stories called words. And we relate to God by inhabiting those symbols together.   

Please enjoy these lovely words from one of my favorite authors, Brain Doyle. These words are from an essay called “The Word” in his book entitled “Grace Notes”.  

“In the beginning was the word, no? Not corralled electricity, not digital display, not ephemeral flicker on a stupendous screen. In the beginning was the word, and kai theos en ho logos, the word was God, the Coherent Mercy speaking everything into being, forming from that unimaginable imagination an endless story, giving birth to it from the holy cave of that unthinkable mouth, so that even now, billions of years later, the words we use, the tools of our tongues, are shards of holiness, glittering and loaded with that original light; as we remember sometimes when a string of them fits together and opens a heart.”

As Word-people, we are responsible to attend to the goodness of each symbol, imagining, and story. Each is a gift. And as a story, a symbol, deepens into greater depth and understanding of the human soul, our astounding relationship with all of Nature, and our connection with God’s very self, gifts us with the opportunity to be grateful for that revelation and invitation.     

May you enjoy a very good Word this day and always.    

Kirk Webb

(Director and founder of the Celtic Center)