As someone who regularly expresses herself in writing and teaching, I am also acutely aware that naming something is not the same as the thing I name. Language is convenient, useful, often helpful, but it never exhausts or exactly represents what it symbolically refers to. Words matter but they are also limited.
Most of the time we don’t question the gaps between words and what they reference. We depend on conventional meaning and practice.
Sometimes we name things we simply don’t understand. As a way to incline our minds and actions toward something we aspire to. As a way to reach for something outside our grasp. As a way to experiment creatively with language. As a way to dream and imagine. As a way to bluff our way through a situation. As a way to appear to be someone we’re not. As a way to empathize with experiences outside our lived reality. As a way to hide our ignorance. As a way of thinking out loud in unfamiliar territory. As a way of processing and learning something new. As a way into or out of confusion and uncertainty.
While we rely on language to communicate with each other, the fundamental disconnect between our words and the world allows for a great amount of play.
For both connection and misunderstanding, truth and lies, fantasy and fact.
For trust and doubt.
This range is part of being a language user.
In any given moment, we may or may not be saying all there is to say. Nonetheless, there is always more is there than words convey.