Word Power

WORD POWER 

By Bill Cottringer 

     Words were originally invented to conveniently represent real objects in early people’s immediate environments that they were excited about but were difficult to carry around and show firsthand. And words certainly did expand the environment by simplifying and speeding up the process of learning about more things, communicating about more things and doing more things. We think, judge, communicate, feel and act in words; and our present realities—everything that is known to us—are all built upon words.

     What we often fail to realize is that words have taken on a separate existence and reality all their own, which is becoming further and further removed from the real objects and things they supposedly represent. There is a big gap between the orange carrot I the farmer just pulled from his garden and the ones with which a factory manager is trying to motivate workers The level of abstraction in our word system has become unproductive and scary.

    Words have standard dictionary definitions, but many are different, and even the same definitions are rarely agreed upon in exactly the same way. Words also have connotative meanings that are developed over time, that are often far different than there intended original meanings. Moreover, words can get an additional spin with different forms of non-verbal flavor—how, when, where and why they are said; in what context; accompanied by what gestures; and the tone they are used in, just to mention a few ways this happens.

     The result is the utter babble of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Now add the element of how complicated and complex things in our world are actually getting these days, and we have a real mess. One can legitimately ask, is there any connection at all in what I think and what is?—or what is the similarity between the word reality we have created and the real realities this word reality is supposed to accurately and completely represent?  Even these questions are insane.

     What do important words like love, God, truth, dishonesty, justice, ethics, equality, purpose, success, happiness and values mean? Some words like these probably have more meanings and interpretations than there are people using them. An additional problem is the polar dualistic demon we have created in dividing life in half. This ‘monster’ classifies all things that words point towards as being either good or bad, right or wrong, or true or false. That is the epitome of word power, or insanity, or whichever comes first.

     I have always suspected there are two main processes going on in life—creating chaos and restoring order. I also thing it is very easy to flip flop things into priority reversals and end up getting the cart before the horse and letting the tail wag the dog. We created words to help restore some order and simplify things. After all, could you imagine what kind of U-haul would be necessary to show all the plethora of ideas of a book firsthand?  

    But in the process of trying to simplify we carried things too far, creating chaos with too many words and too many meanings, too far removed from the concrete objects and things the were trying to show and tell.

     Now we obviously need to restore some order by getting more consensus on word meanings, deleting over-used ones, resurrecting under-used ones and shortening the distance between the words and their objects. The trouble is the words have been influencing their objects all along and that bizarre process has resulted in the separate existence they have created; but never-the-less we have to overlook that obstacle and somehow in the meantime manage to use words to fix the word problem. This very same problem and solution, I believe, was seen much earlier by artists, especially poets. Hence my effort to contribute to a resolution:

                                                             OVERLOAD 

Time to shut down—

Close the windows,

Shut the doors.

Too many answers,

So few cures.

Headaches, heartburn;

Hassles and hierarchies.

Mountains of words

That go unheard.

Information overload—

No end in sight.

Too much to do,

Never enough time.

When will we see past

What we are looking at?

Empty our minds,

Fill our souls—

Find truth,

Obey life,

Enjoy one another,

And simplify?

It’s not too late;

It’s time to try;

Know what matters,

Let go of the rest.

William S. Cottringer, Ph.D. is President of Puget Sound Security, Business Coach, Photographer and Sport Psychologist from North Bend, WA. He is author of several books including You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too, The Bow-Wow Secrets, Passwords To The Prosperity Zone, “P” Point Management, “Do What Matters Most and Reality Repair R_x.  Bill can be reached for comment or questions at (425) 454-5011 or bcottringner@pssp.net