Utterance

I'm scared to write. I always have been, and I suspect I always will be to a certain extent. Writing scares me because it is much like speaking, but far more permanent. When I was a kid I didn't want to use a pen when scrawling things because I couldn't erase pen. Pen meant permanent. The internet isn't much different. As soon as you say something, it's for real. It's out there, and that has consequences. Usually I'm ridiculed by half of my friends for saying something poorly, and the other half for saying anything at all, but that's not at all the kind of consequences I mean.

This isn't a livejournal, so I'll forget the Prufrock moment and get to the point. I'm scared to write because I have an inkling of how important saying things is to us. Human beings are unique in the universe in that we have the ability to reason and speak. That carries a responsibility: we behold the world and try to explain how it is to each other. This could mean that I discover a new species of animal, and name it something. orangitangus ipodibus. Or perhaps I discover a new continent, and name it after my third grade teacher's dog. The power of speech goes beyond just applying a "nickname" or "handle" to a thing; when we speak, we give utterance to something's essential unchangeable nature.

If I call Johnny a poopyhead, he'll be understandably upset, because my remark tries to make him into what he isn't at all. Until I change my statement, he and I will disagree about his essential nature and believe different things about the way the world IS. Johnny doesn't become the dirty name I call him, but that one time on the playground was about the nature of the whole universe. Speech and reason in action.

Obviously, we don't speak things into existence like God does, as we do not have that authority. Things don't "become" what we say, but it matters how we say them to each other... we want to be right. Yet we have an limitless capacity for wrongness, lies, or stupidity, and none of that manages to impact the existence of reality. Thank God we're not God. According to Genesis, man was given the authority to name the animals, and then told to fill the earth and subdue it.

Some things only seem to exist in words though. For example: What is "justice" ? Is it a thing sitting on a shelf somewhere?  No, it's not. People can act justly or unjustly and we'd know all about it, but I can't measure 12 oz. of justice and throw it at vampires like I can with holy water. It doesn't work that way. But if I want to tell people how, why, and that they should act justly, I need to employ the abstract concept to explain it. And in this regard, our  power of speech is mighty and terrible. We can reason about the way things are, whether it is fair to take my money to give to the poor, why we act the way we do, or whether a BLT is better than a tuna melt, or anything inbetween.  (The aforementioned attempt to be appeals to goodness, truth, or beauty, respectively. And so you know? BLTs are better. Objectively)

I'm done for now. Cowardice is a vice, so I shall take courage and sally forth against metaphysical things with speech and reason. Cheers.