WORDS

Here's a great quote for a blogger to mull over:

Words are not just wind: words have something to say.  But if what they refer to cannot be fixed at all, then do they really say anything?  Or do they say nothing? 

Now, I am about to say something here.  I don't know if, in saying something, I am just like everyone else or not.  Whether what I say is just like what everyone else says or not, it certainly resembles what they say in setting up particular categories.  In that sense, it is no different from what they say.  That said, permit me to say something.

Ha!  Yes!  Permit me to say something!  Even if my words say nothing!  This wonderful conundrum is a quotation from Zhuangzi, the Daoist philosopher, and I found it in a remarkable book I'm reading called Trying Not to Try: The Ancient Chinese Art and Modern Science of Spontaneity, by Edward Slingerland.  I'll have more to say about it when I've finished reading the review copy that I have in hand.  But it's a fascinating read for anyone interested in the creative "flow"--and how to get into it.