The word is out.
Minds of every age consider the question of what medium, what expression, best gives evidence of the human condition – what form best presents humanity as it passes into history?
The trick is preservation, observation, without concretization. Concrete is heavy, tends to crush what it captures. Dogma is rarely illuminating.
Words, pictures, thoughts, shared at high speed. Instant access, instant message to friends. Friends – a word being drained of meaning.
Twitter, Dogg, blogs, electronic touch, touch down, restlessly move on to the next touch, the dogma of these days.
Uninhabited words zinging back and forth, some cleverly constructed, some not, valued for arrangement, rather than content. Neuronal massage, maybe a little dopamine, and then off for more.
What is it that can express a human moment, or a lifetime, that holds and releases, costs nothing, cannot be horded or sold, and usually contains the indelible essence of any person? Something understood across any language, both ephemeral and explanatory, that cannot be electrified, painted, or destroyed?
The word is out.
It is a sigh.
So true. And oh the versatility of a sigh. the sigh of exhaustion after removing the snow; the sigh of completion at the end of a project or task; the sigh of exasperation at the child unruly with boredom; the sigh of resignation at the inappropriate but binding decision of a government agency; the sigh of frustration at the software program that is not cooperating; the sigh of excitement – though rare for its usual replacement with other expressions – at a wonderful event; the quick sigh of fear or trepidation when faced with the unknown; the sigh of love at seeing a dear family member; the sigh of anger, more a huff, at injustice perpetuation on someone or something; and oh, oh so many others – sighs of different lengths and different tenors, of volume and pitch, of kept private and expressly made public, of trivial and of meaningful; but best, for the moment – for me, is the the sigh of contented gratitude for seeing, and reading, and appreciating another post from a dear friend.
Yes, I must agree – the sigh is the language of humanities momentary experiences – and oh how expressive it can be.
Wes