Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tower of Babel

What if the significance of the tower of Babel really lies in what happened before it existed. What if everyone spoke the same language, all humans, animals, tree, flowers, water, all of nature. What if the fairies were able to communicate with humans, trees could talk to humans, and dogs could talk to trees and babies and children could talk to everyone. Then I catch myself, well some of those things really do happen, babies do know how to commuicate with animals and flowers easily. Dogs do know how to talk to trees. What has changed is the human factor. Humans speak so many different languages and get confused, We create wars and grudges out of simple misunderstandings.

What if the Native American languages( refer to language post please) that emphasized
kinesthetics or feelings were the true language of communication with all things. We often hear that the native way was being connected to all things and valuing all life. What if all traditional cultures, used the same language before the tower of Babel. Gods could talk to humans, to dogs, to flowers to trees to fairies to Godesses.

I want to create that time again. I want all of us to be able to ask our dogs what is the matter and understand the answer. I want to be able to ask the mulberry tree in my yard why it no longer produces berries or the rasberry bushes are all thorns?
What a magical communicative world it could be. If you want to read an interesting writer that does communicate easily with nature, please check out Michaelle Small Wright's books .

What language are you speaking?

Language

While reading the book "Beyond Words" by Marta Williams, I stumbled upon an amazing discovery. Language can be a kinesthetic communication. I thought that I was the only one that did not think in pictures, I always thought in words. I even dream in words. Sometimes, in other languages, ie. French , Spanish and Greek .

A Native American Linguist named Dan MoonHawk Alford studied native languages for many years. He became aware of dramatic differences between European languages and some native languages. European languages emphasize the noun and are primarily visual. Native languages emphasize the experience and are kinesthetic. So if you are talking about dancing, the English speaker would emphasize the dancer and the native speaker would talk about dancing. Imagine language where the focus is on the feeling of smooth, red hot, intense, breathless and not whether the dancer is male and is ballroom dancing.
This was a huge awareness for me. So some people speak with a visual emphasis and others with feelings. What implications are there for human communication?

What if two people are talking about how to describe a chair. One insists that what matters is the height of it and the other is only aware of the function. Does it fit with the desk and allow leg room? Is it comfortable? It is hard to reach agreement and argument ends the discussion. Perhaps it has to do with which part of the brain, left or right, is emphasized when languaging. Perhaps, it is genetic . What if we are born with kinesthetic language and then lose it as a part of maturation. What if our children are primarily kinesthetic in their language and our educational system emphasizes visual. What if we have to give up our innate language to fit into what society wants us to say?