Drink your wine. Laugh from your gut. Burden your moments with thankfulness. Be as empty as you can be when that clock winds down. Spend your life. And if time is a river, may you leave a wake.
N.D. WilsonRead
Imagine a poem written with such enormous three-dimensional words that we had to invent a smaller word to reference each of the big ones; that we had to rewrite the whole thing in shorthand, smashing it into two dimensions, just to talk about it. Or don’t imagine it. Look outside. Human language is our attempt at navigating God’s language; it is us running between the lines of His epic, climbing on the vowels and building houses out of the consonants.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language is a tool for understanding and expressing the profound intricacies of existence.
This quote by N.D. Wilson reflects on the limitations of human language in conveying the depth of divine or fundamental truths. It suggests that while we strive to articulate our experiences and understand the complexities of life through words, we often find ourselves simplifying or condensing those vast ideas into more manageable terms, akin to reducing a rich poem into shorthand. This metaphor highlights the expansive nature of reality and our persistent, albeit imperfect, endeavor to comprehend and communicate it.
Themes
LanguageExpressionCommunicationUnderstandingPhilosophyExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of effective communication in our personal and professional lives.
More from N.D. Wilson
All quotes →The world is rated R, and no one is checking IDs. Do not try to make it G by imagining the shadows away. Do not try to hide your children from the world forever, but do not pretend there is no danger . Train them. Give them sharp eyes and bellies full of laughter. Make them dangerous. Make them yeast, and when they’ve grown, they will pollute the shadows.
N.D. WilsonRead
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