Monday, May 19, 2008

Words are pointers to experiences of life. They are not the experience itself. When we relate to words as if they are the actual experience, we lose the capacity to experience life.

Words are powerful when they point to, or evoke, memories of powerful experiences in our past. They are also powerful when used to capture, and later refer back to, powerful experiences as they are experienced. An even more powerful gift of language is the capacity to "mix and match" experiences from our past, allowing for creativity. Perhaps the most powerful gift of language is the creation of new languaging to express new experiences, which allows for innovation and generative design of the future.

Words are least powerful when they are used as a filter through which we experience life. When used in this way, we can only experience that which we have words for in our past experience, and we miss the experience of life itself. We have limited capacity for creativity and innovation, because we have limited capacity for new, as yet unlanguaged, experience.