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.