words – encrusted words

God spoke – and the dome of the sky was there in all its glorious blue.

God spoke – and moving, shifting, heaving waters came together in the sea.

God spoke – and the Baobab tree, wild grasses, flowering bushes were planted.

God spoke – and in the night’s sky there was the Orion nebula, Haley’s comet, red giants.

God spoke – massive blue whale in water, glorious flamingo on shoreline.

God spoke – cheetah speed on land, lumbering elephant in grassland, wild boar foraging in forest.

God spoke – a man, a woman – encounter, love, and mutuality.

We also speak. We speak a great many words each day. One study of found that college students in the U.S. speak on average around 15,000 words per day. Of course we aren’t college students and many of us don’t live in that kind of highly social context. Our world isn’t their world. But it is astonishing to recognize that many of us speak thousands of words a day. Continue reading →

The spoken word – what can it accomplish?

With the spoken word we can call the children in late in the afternoon” “Suppertime – put your bikes away in the garage.”

With the spoken word we can we can explain a problem to the plumber: “Well, when I drain the kitchen sink, water comes up in the bathroom sink.”

With the spoken word we are able to teach a class of history students: “During the war of 1812, British forces burned down the White House in Washington D.C.”

With the spoken word we can communicate information in a pretty straightforward way. Of course there’s a lot happening in the background as we speak – in some ways speaking is hardly a straightforward thing. In the background our minds are composing sentences according to grammatical rules – then breath passes over vocal cords and past the tongue, with sound waves emanating from our mouths. We don’t pay much attention to the mechanics or neurology of the thing – we just speak. Day in and day out we speak to our kids, or to the plumber or to a classroom full of students – often just communicating basic, non-controversial stuff. Continue reading →