Points of Light, the whole of communication, communication that’s real, true, and meaningful, lie within a single, powerful, and all-encompassing word. If we choose to embrace this word, it’ll bring into the lives of those who do all the light, color, and beauty they desire to live a happy life. This word is definition. As Merriam-Webster says, “the action or the power of describing, explaining, or making definite and clear.” In the context of this little essay, DEFINITE and CLEAR are words that mean everything.
In life, Babel prevents achieving accommodation, co-operative accomplishment, and lasting relationship. No matter the closeness of proximity, when one speaks porcupine and the other speaks zebra, even if only a mere single degree of separation exists between them, these two can never communicate and understanding between them will never happen.
I learned something of this as a young person in high school. In the eleventh grade, I was allowed to take part in an experimental internship program. Mind you, as the product of the inner-city undereducated class, the entirety of my experience in this program was way over my head and my ability to grasp and comprehend my experience was sorely lacking. I mean, I had no idea who Adam and Eve were, nor did I ever grasp what an internship was, nor what it was meant to help me accomplish. Still, with my then imagined goal of becoming president someday, the internship program matched me with the political liaison of the Atlanta Public School System. I believe his name was, well, I’m just going to say his name was Dr. Stanley. Dr. Stanley was extremely well educated within the city of Atlanta, I’ve slept, a lot, since then, but I think he attended Morris-Brown College, though I wouldn’t want to guess where he was awarded his doctorate. One day, after I was fumbling around with an answer to one of his questions, choosing and using what the product of the inner-city undereducated class might wrongly choose and use (in my case - read southern red-neck), Dr. Stanley looked at me and said, “Son, words mean things. Say what you mean and mean what you say.” With this simple yet powerful admonishment, somehow, at the same time, I felt both put-down and uplifted by the good doctor’s words. In my young life, I had experienced a little too much darkness. This internship program, whatever it was, allowed me a little light that granted me some color to experience life in a new and more exciting way. You need to understand that this was color that existed outside of our families black and white, “Hee-Haw” and “Phil Donahue” T.V. show’s life experience we seemed to be trapped in. This newfound light gave me not a lot of beauty, but just enough beauty that I was, kind-of, sort-of, able to see that life can be lived differently from anything a T.V. show could offer my family, no matter how seriously my family took those shows. Now honesty wants me to say, for some in the internship program, it was a positive experience, even though it accomplished very little for me. But I walked away with a beam of light that never left my inquisitive mind. “Words mean things. Say what you mean and mean what you say.” I wasn’t aware of this, it existed nowhere, not in my conscience, nor in my sub-conscience, but Dr. Stanley was shining an enormous light full of wondrous colors on me, and for the first time in my memory, a seed of beauty was planted into my life. This seed would eventually grow into something extremely beautiful–Definition.
Leading up to, and then continuing through my internship encounters with Dr. Stanley, in my family’s household, as I’ve already hinted about, my two brothers and I were being brought up with “Hee-Haw” and “Phil Donahue” as a mainstay on our T.V. I sometimes joke that my family viewed Hee-Haw as a documentary. Within that same house, back then I never understood why, nor, after 50 decades have passed, do I have any idea why my stepfather always had to win an argument with his 10-year-old stepson (your fun-loving, benevolent, light, color, and beauty writing author - me), that his textbooks were wrong. As per said, step-father, the Romans didn't control the entirety of the "known world." Why? Because, as per said, step-father, there was a bigger world the Romans didn't know about. As I got older, I remember how school was the outlet I longed for so that I could escape settling for the raw mundane of mediocre, and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations provided me with a map for my longed-for escape. I mean, step-father's…" The lawn ain't getting itself mowed", held some kind of cute, homespun wisdom that made me smile, kind of. But when I read Churchill say "Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," that spoke to me in a way that grabbed me by my shoulders and commanded me to think. To me, there seemed to be something to this thinking. It was in words said well, and if you will, with a flourish that made me want to be willing to think. "Riddle, mystery, and enigma," I thought about those three words, then I really smiled hard for the newfound beauty I'd perceived in those words. They deftly defined a dazzling light on what the rest of the world needed to know and understand about what was then, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, and in this clear, and wondrously colorful definition, beauty entered my life.
When I got older, I entered the Air Force and became a Christian. As a Christian, I started reading what old dead white men had written about Biblical Theology and various biblical topical teachings. As I read these works, I found more words that made me smile real smiles for all the light, color, and beauty I was finding in their words. One book I was reading was by Albert Barnes. He lived from the early to the late 1800's. Pastor Barnes had originally studied to be a lawyer until he surrendered to become a minister. He wrote a book called "The Atonement". It was a clearly reasoned discussion on the necessity of Jesus' death. In the chapter titled, "The Necessity of an Atonement" he said, " We are not, for we cannot, so go back of the actual arrangement of things in the Divine Economy and attempt to ascertain what God could or could not have done; we cannot determine beforehand whether it would or would not be proper that such a disposition of affairs should be allowed to exist, as would make an atonement necessary;… etc.". There were several lines to this one sentence, and each line contained precise language that made clear, exactly clear, what he was trying to get across. Many times, with their beautiful, incisive, carefully crafted words, these old dead white men would introduce a subject with a cursory telling of what their subject was generally understood to mean. Then they would launch into what their subject didn't mean, next, what their subject could mean, and finally, what their subject meant. As I read their works, their beautiful words often held me transfixed! It would be as though I was looking at a Monet, Rembrandt, or Van Gogh. They never failed to use words that left no room for doubt as to what they were conveying, even while those words allowed you to clearly think, which allowed you to come to your own opinion of either, 1. agreement or, 2. Disagreement, with their conclusions. Why? Because of remarkable intention, those old dead white men took great care to build the case for their subject, and because of how they did exactly this, they could precisely define exactly what they wanted to convey. I loved that their words allowed me to think acutely, or maybe because of my red-neck, Hee-Haw, Phil Donahue, background - I felt happy to think at all, really. I thrived on how their words were precise and plain, while also being numerous enough to help me understand subjects bigger than myself. Definition was defining itself to me with so much light and color, I couldn’t help but smile at all the beauty I was experiencing.
Definition is, of course, of utmost importance. That’s what Dr. Stanly had told me. Am I, are you, looking for light to shine into our lives? Definition could very well be a synonym for light! Isn’t it in definition where we ultimately discover the calm of clarity? Definition gives so much color to “who, what, where, when, why, and how”, that, if we choose, life can become beautiful for the dictum I’d never forgotten–“Words mean things. Say what we mean and mean what we say.” With definition, worry falls by the wayside. With definition, accommodations for many and varying issues can be achieved, people can co-operate and accomplishments can be accomplished. Also, relationships can become long-lasting.
Now, without definition, some might gasp if I were to say that “there is a catholic understanding among scientists that our earth revolves around the sun. And also, that Einstein finally showed scientists why Mercury’s orbit is stupid.” The gasp can also be made unnecessary if the word catholic is well defined. I mean, most people assume they understand exactly what one means when he speaks the word “Catholic”. So, in this instance, we need to shine the light of definition on our word, and take the time we need to build our case before we talk about that “catholic understanding among scientists”. So, where does the word “catholic” come from, anyway? We explain this with definition so to make our meaning definite and clear. For instance, the word catholic is taken from the late Latin - catholicus, which was derived from the Greek word - katholikos (καθολικός). It literally means “universal”. The first time Catholic was used in referring to the church was by Saint Ignatius in the first century. Basically, as the Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius clarified that the church, whose head was the pope, was in fact the catholic church. Taken literally, Ignatius meant that one is saying the Catholic church is the ONE true church, or the “universal ” church. So, what about our scientists? Have we somehow said, or even implied, that they’re somehow religious? No, and of course many scientists are religious, but we were simply saying there’s a “universal” understanding (based on science, of course) that the earth revolves around the sun and that Einstein helped science figure out why Mercury’s orbit is stupid. Definition is everything, as confusion has to disappear while it flees from definition’s presence. Furthermore, people that were standing at a distance for lack of definition are brought closer, nearer, and maybe even together.
In order to get across the necessity for clarity of definition, what is to follow is me having fun with word play. In order to follow along, you'll very much need, as I've already stated, definition. In this word play, you need the psychological meaning for the word affect (pronounced af-ekt) - Affect is a psychological term for an observable expression of emotion. I had fun writing this and hope you enjoy the amusing ride...
Also, without definition, many might be confused if I said “my affect (af-ekt) was joyful because definition has the affect (uh-fekt) of making Tod w/ only one d very happy.” But definition has that affect (uh-fekt) on me and it tends to make my affect (af-ekt) joyful for anyone willing to notice. To shed light on this, it’s pretty simple, really. If some outside effect or experience has influenced me, well, it has an affect (uh-fekt) on me. Definition has a very good and extremely positive influence on me; therefore, it has an affect (uh-fekt) on me. Also, as definition affects (uh-fekt) me, I feel joy and not being capable of hiding my joy. Its countenance is clearly seen on my face and is my affect (af-ekt) Hah, word usage bores deeper into Dr. Stanley’s, “Words mean things, say what you mean and mean what you say” dictum. It also makes life more fun and exciting. To me, this is a big part of what the meaning of beauty is. But it begins with the light of definition to exude the colors we need to find beauty — fun, and excitement -for our lives.
How dark and gray the world would be where all of us forever, only porcupines and zebras in a room where we’d never be able to communicate. I’ve already said, “Babel prevents achieving accommodation, co-operative accomplishment, and lasting relationship.” In the world today, I hear more and more babel as I hear so many people talking, but no one is ever hearing. This leads to consensus never being achieved for lack of the wonderful light of definition. The zebra can talk all day to the porcupine, but try as he might, the porcupine will only ever hear babel. The thing is, they’re stuck into something they can never escape. People have a chance, if they take it, to define what they say, knowing that words mean things, and to say what they mean and to mean what they say. I’m talking about nothing less than real, true, and honest communication, and yes, of course, communication takes time so that one can dig deep, and find the precise words that say something real and meaningful as one builds his or her case. I’m feeling joyful now and if you were near me, you’d notice this was my affect. I’m visualizing a beautiful painting full of so many colors and it's as though this painting has a warm white light radiating on my face. The painting is of a world and her people willing to communicate by defining their words.
As Always,
Love and Peace,
Tod w/only one d
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