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Limitations
May. 2nd, 2011 11:18 pmOne of the nicest compliments I ever received was when I worked at the winery. I'd gotten about halfway through a tasting, and the woman I was giving it to said something like "I don't really like any of these wines so far. But you really make me want to buy them."
Being good with words is a wonderful skill. If you can craft your words properly, you can sway people - on the page and (if you're good at speaking) in person as well. Words help to define the world around us, which in turn, helps to shape our individual realities; if you place them correctly, you can change people's perceptions. Not a lot, necessarily, but a little bit; and sometimes it's that crucial little bit that dominoes into a truly huge change. It's a lot of power.
Which must be why, for someone used to that kind of power, it's so incredibly frustrating to run up against something immutable - something that can't be denied, or talked around, or out of, or adjusted slightly to the left and made less difficult.
I wonder if that's why so many famous writers (and artists in general, as all art carries a similar power to one degree or another) have been so unstable. We're so used to being able to get around problems by shifting our own or others' perceptions that, when we're brought to a stop by something (or several somethings) unchangeable, we honestly have no idea how to proceed.
Being good with words is a wonderful skill. If you can craft your words properly, you can sway people - on the page and (if you're good at speaking) in person as well. Words help to define the world around us, which in turn, helps to shape our individual realities; if you place them correctly, you can change people's perceptions. Not a lot, necessarily, but a little bit; and sometimes it's that crucial little bit that dominoes into a truly huge change. It's a lot of power.
Which must be why, for someone used to that kind of power, it's so incredibly frustrating to run up against something immutable - something that can't be denied, or talked around, or out of, or adjusted slightly to the left and made less difficult.
I wonder if that's why so many famous writers (and artists in general, as all art carries a similar power to one degree or another) have been so unstable. We're so used to being able to get around problems by shifting our own or others' perceptions that, when we're brought to a stop by something (or several somethings) unchangeable, we honestly have no idea how to proceed.
