Verbal Barrage

We frequently hear people complain of the inadequacy of words. The stammering student is often heard to say that he knows the answer but can’t express is. There are times of deep emotion in the lives of all of us that defy the limits of language. Sometimes in our thinking we border on great thoughts that transcend our ability to reduce them to words. But this complaint about the inadequacy of words has no reference to any scarcity of talk. Our comparatively limited stock of words we turn over so many times in the utterance of so many commonplace things that it would seem they would lose the sharpness of their meaning, and, indeed, the careless use of a word will dull its cutting edge, just as will the wrong use of a tool. This frequent turn-over of our stock of vocabulary is one of the wasteful practices of our talkative day. Loose, small talk is so often substituted for thought, and so often used to camouflage the superficiality of social situations: “therefore, let thy words be few.” “Cease from all your light speeches… from all your pride and light-mindedness.” “Cast away your idle thoughts… far from you.” “For our words will condemn us… and our thoughts will also condemn us.” “Let your words tend to edifying one another.” But if, with all this prodigal barrage of language to which we are daily exposed, words should become threadbare and tiresome and commonplace, dull and unconvincing, there is still left to us the possibility of making our lives convincing. A worthy life never becomes threadbare or trite and is never confused with mere words.