Words

Words are powerful things, sometimes even more powerful than we realize. We use them everyday for everything from the trivial to the profound, and yet, we often don't realize what we are doing with them. What are words?  Are they merely labels or do they refer to something that exists?  Why are they so powerful?

There are two main ideas about what words are. One is that they represent something that exists, whether it is real or not. It leads to the problem of how many unicorns aren't in the doorway. The other is that words are merely labels and have no meaning beyond that. I rather prefer the latter, though there is a problem with it that I don't remember off the top of my head. It seems to me that words main use is to be labels for things and ideas. If we didn't have words, we'd likely have some other way of referring to things.

More interestingly, why are words so powerful?  Because they are labels and as labels they allows us to have handles on things outside of ourselves. This is why knowing the 'true name' of something was so important. If you knew what something was, you could control it in ways others couldn't. Some people are afraid of labels because they fear being boxed in by them. This is because so many people use them wrong. A person isn't just a set of labels, there is so much more. Labels should be used for a person to get a better hold on a part of her personality, not to pigeon-hole her. I have not experienced such freedom as I have when I determined my personality type. It tells me a bit about me and things that I need to watch and why I relate to the world in the way I do. Am I defined by it?  Not in the least, there are so many ways that I don't fit into a neat little box. But, it does give me a handle on a part of myself and understanding of myself that I would not have without that label.