Clack-Clack, Where Me Are

"All of us, to some extent, borrow from others, from the culture around us. We borrow language itself; we did not invent it...Everyone compounds it with one's own experiences... and expresses it in a new way, one's own."  Oliver Sacks

70% of the world's population use a language derived from the "Latin script" or sometimes referred to as "Roman script."  These languages are based on an alphabet of twenty six letters.  This alphabet consists of five vowels and twenty one consonants.

Referring to the quote above, Sacks suggests we compound and express our language in a new way, and we make it our own.

One of my life's most heartfelt joys at the moment is a little boy who will be two in a few days. He delights me in every way possible.  One thing he's doing that delights me is his fledgling efforts to use the Queen's English.  Just yesterday at his home he climbed in a laundry basket, tucked himself face down and said, "Mommy, say where me are."  You and I might tuck ourselves in the laundry basket and and say, "Mommy, I would love to play peek-a-boo.  As I hide my head, please say, 'Where are you; I don't see you.'  ' But he didn't say that;  he said "Mommy, say where me are." Not only was what he said perfectly understandable, but he demonstrated a  powerful sense of self. He made a distinction between his mommy and himself. And he did all that with five words.

I've been writing and posting my thoughts here for about fourteen years. Since I post about twice a week and each of the posts are about 1,000 words, that means that I have posted about 1.5 million words.  That's a lot of words. I drew all of those words from a twenty six letter alphabet. If each of those words consisted of an average of five letters, then I used about 7.5 million letters over those fourteen years. As  Sacks said, I didn't invent the English language, I just borrowed it, and "I compounded it with my own experience."  If I've said anything meaningful for anyone, it was through those 7.5 million letters. But I didn't use 7.5 million letters, did I?  I used twenty six. My little friend used eight. And he "expressed himself in a new way" just as surely as I have over these fourteen years.  And who's to say who communicated more effectively?

For me, one of the most effective uses of the English language is in a book about both the English language and the Hebrew alphabet.   Frederick Buechner (beek.ner), in his The Alphabet of Grace, chronicles one day of his life. During part of the day he walked into the woods behind his house to hear "a word from God". After an hour or so, the only thing he heard was the "clack-clack" of  a limb against another limb.  He decided that "clack-clack" is often all we get and if we don't find the voice of God there, we'll never find it. He compares that sound to the consonants in our language.  He then suggests that although the vowels contain the resonance  of our language, God most often speaks to us through the blunt percussion of the consonants. He then draws an analogy from the original Hebrew language that contained no vowels.  The vowels in that language were understood and spoken.  YWVH, for example, we know as Yahveh or Yahweh. So in that ancient language the written Word of  God was literally in the  consonants.  If we then are to find meaning in our lives, it's through the day-to-day activities that seldom include trips to Mount Sinai. Clack-clack.

The children in my life have been calling me Big Dave for over twenty years.  That's what my own granddaughter calls me.  For this little boy, this almost two year old, it comes out "Dihdave." It may not be exactly right, but it's perfect. It's music to my ears. And I'll play "Say where me are" anytime he wants to play.