The Limits of Language and the Power of Music

For the past few days I've been omnivorously reading The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts, a 20th century  British-born philosopher and theologian.  In it, he stresses the complex duality of both mind and body, and how in many ways, according to him, it is responsible for our misconceived perceptions of life.  One of the main culprits of this misconception is our reliance on language for truly understanding reality.  He stresses that reality and life itself is that of a flowing river, continuously moving, forever changing, and by using language we are merely creating symbols, static to our times and conventions.  While language is an extremely powerful tool that helps point us in the right direction, to him, it's like trying to catch the flowing river with a bucket.  For while you may catch the water itself, it is no longer flowing, thus it cannot truly represent the real nature of the river.

Essentially he is discussing how we create constructs and models for viewing the world, and this stems from our natural state of insecurity, a symptom of the conscious, forever aware of our transient nature.  Because of this we constantly stress over the future, imagining how things will be better, trying to squeeze in as much of life's pleasures before our ego-self fades away.  He argues we need to stop relying so much on our mind's desires, and become more in touch with the body itself, streamlining a pure consciousness, so we can value the only existence that is real, the present.  For anyone who is conversant with Ancient and or Eastern philosophy, these ideas start to sound very familiar.  

While I personally enjoy his writings, for I do feel they hold great importance in terms of describing the human condition in a modern tongue, what truly excites me about his works is his focus on language and its limits.  While words have the ability to move us, make us imagine and  wonder, I'm sure many of you have at times felt that there are just certain things that words could never fully express.  I believe this comes down to the core of our being, our emotions; our body.  All of this made me think of another form of language that is without words, a language you feel just as much as you hear; the language of music.  

Music holds an infinite ability that is impossible to express with words, for words will only represent a place in time, and music is pure and flowing.  In fact, it is this rhythm, the ups and downs, the change, that music possesses, that makes it so powerful.  For it is perhaps the closest thing to expressing the nature of reality and life itself.  

Next time you find yourself at a concert, whether classical, opera, jam-band, or rock-n-roll, notice the hundreds of people memorized by the sounds and the feelings that are rushing through your body.  Sure, there are words within many of these songs, but imagine what the performance would be without the music;  merely somebody expressing a moment, for it is the music itself that brings it to life.  

The Primacy of Ends - What Thanksgiving Can Teach Us About Life

As I sat down this morning, prepping for my hour drive back home to family, friends, Turkey, and gluttonous activities, I was catching up on the most recent episode of South Park.  As always, they gave a wonderful satirical image of the various idiosyncrasies and nuances that of which the American citizen consists of.  This episode specifically targeted the mayhem of our secular, consumerist holiday; Black Friday.  The one day of the year where millions of Americans will line up outside in either the bitter cold or a more temperate climate, depending on their location, and wait for the various "temples of worship" to open their doors so the masses may pay tribute to our grand system.   Thinking to myself how awesome it would be to land a new Playstation 4 or some other hedonistic gaming device, I still tried to shift my focus onto the meaning of the holiday at hand, Thanksgiving.

We're taught that this is a day where Native Americans and Pilgrims joined together for a grand feast, celebrating the act of giving, and being thankful for all around us that helps satiate our hunger, soul, and other much needed facets of human existence.  Today is a day where we sit down and jump out of the rat race we all participate in and focus on what really matters.  Today is a day where we try to remember why we do the things we do; why we love who we love, why we have the career we have, and why we are the way we are. Today is the day where we remember all those who help complete us, who give us our identity and understanding of the world just as we give it to them.

I suppose this rant all relates back to an article I was reading the other day.  It was a rather esoteric academic work on decision-making models and how normative and affective factors influence one's decisions.  Now, to bring this to laymen terms, this essentially means how our values, emotions, and other ethical/human related concepts influence our behavior.  In it, the author, Amitai Etzioni, states these factors will always influence our behavior, but whether this is a good or bad thing depends on the situation.  Still, he also argues our values all the one thing that will consistently ensure we have what he calls, " a primacy of ends."

What he states here is that our values are the things that keep our heads on straight and remind us what's important.  Of course this is obvious, but I'm not quite sure if everyone tends to look at things like this all the time.  I think it's really easy to get lost in the sea of confusion.  There's a specific story line in my head that I think we've all heard, seen, or read about at some point in time.  The man who jumps into that certain career in order to develop a stable and strong environment for which to raise a family, and then it is the demands of that career itself that help deteriorate the very thing of which he wanted in the first place.   In essence, the means themselves gained primacy as the end goal got lost at sea.

I wonder to what extent do we put these pressures on us?  The society we have created is without a doubt a highly-advanced one that has produced so many benefits to the general welfare of mankind it's almost impossible to keep track of them.  Yet I think sometimes our cause for action or our reason for continuing this social structure is slightly distorted.  Perhaps we lose sight of the values we had as a kid.  The very things that brought smiles to our young faces and warmed our hearts might have faded away. Why? Well, sometimes we lose faith just because of a few lost battles or we've spent one too many times listening to the words of another whose faith has been lost.  But to be fair, all words have their own dose of wisdom, just be sure to find what that lesson actually is rather than blindly accept all words as true.    Still, this isn't a good enough cause for throwing away everything.

I think we need to remember our values.  This has nothing to do with religion, although in reality religious structures have always been some of the biggest proponents of value systems.  This has to do with an appreciation of humanity, the thought of being thankful for what we do and do not know.  The idea that out of all of the millions and billions of particles in the world, somehow at sometime, they all collided at just the right moment, and here we are today, spending our time traveling to and fro the houses of family and friends. Experiencing the wonderfully mysterious pleasures of everything; warmth, laughter, food, and love.

Sure Thanksgiving only comes once a year, but maybe it's about time we start making the extra effort to carry its lesson throughout every day.  I know it's hard, being human is perhaps one of the most wonderfully brilliant and simultaneously miserable things we may ever know.  Yet we should appreciate it all, for without it, we wouldn't know what really matters.