Words are the best magic tricks in the world. They are illusory and thinner than air, and yet, they chart history and oil our human relationships. I often wonder: how is it possible that we are enraged, calmed, fortified, and yes, even inspired, by the sworling of tongues and bellows of our breathing? How can we--with our feet planted firmly on the earth--be so moved by sound combinations? Words are not even real; they can be grasped like tools, wielded like weapons, offered as gifts, but they exist only in our minds.
In the fall, I will attend graduate school to study writing. Why? This is my desire because there are such powers in writing, they frighten me. There is power to motivate others, and there is power to trap images that would flee, caging them so all may see and marvel. These are powers I do not understand, but which I seek. I have tracked words as in the bush, sneaking and racing after them, but they are fast and wily and sometimes loathe to settle together in patterns of beauty or truth. Must they be tamed, can they be tamed; who is to tame them, if not I? Surely there are wise writers who have gone before me, who have learned how to raise their fingers and test the wind, secreting their scent, who can tell me how to catch the words by surprise.
During my college days at Harding University, I toyed with words, taking them for granted, confining them in essay displays unworthy of their wild nature. But there is the memory of safari and savanna in words, the recollection of deep sea roamings, the whiff of winds across mountain tundra. There are word combinations we have yet to discover, delicate crystals sealed in a cave, existing for what other purpose than to be found and preserved?
Beyond college, through my world travels in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, it seems I have found my unique voice. But she is young. A voice needs to be shaped as an athlete, practiced to the point of grace. The well-trained voice performs as a dancer. She is a servant to mechanics, and yet, she pushes the boundaries of creativity and imagination, breathtaking in her ability to combine what is fixed with what might be.
I have said that words are the best magic tricks in the world. They make something out of nothing; they are an act of creation. Just as the magician pulls the white rabbit out of thin air, so does the writer, through words empty like a top hat, pull forth emotions and thoughts, and most amazing of all, actions. This is why writing is such an integral part of my faith. In every connection made through words, we honor God's powers of creativity and sharing, and we honor the Christ. For God is the master writer, and Jesus, as were are told in John 1, is THE Word, the First and the Last.
For the love of words, all praise be to God!
Posted at February 1, 2004 12:00 AM
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