Letters, words, sentences, processes, ideas.

They are really just analogies to ideas. Something as simply as A, B, C, D. We learn their order by a simple song, if only to know who they are and what they kind of do. But then we add order.

We take I, L, P, S and arrange them to make words. SLIP, LIPS, LISP. Words that represent objects. Or actions. But then it gets better. We take a collection of words, and add some order, and we get sentences. Declarations of what is happening, what we plan to do, things we like or thoughts we have. But often this is where it stops. But for more added fun we really should go one.

We can take these declarations (or some cases imperatives or interrogations), and arrange them. In order. And place them beside each other, and we get processes. Like making soup or fixing a bench. Or processes of thought. How we reason through things in our mind.  How we think.

And then we take these declarations of how things are: The room is painted white.

We add other ordered letters in ordered sentences, and add more sentences, and then we arrive at a process for something we want to do, or fix, or wish for :

The room is white.
We can drive to Home Depot.
We should look for some orange paint, with brushes.
They will ask us to pay some money.
We can paint the walls orange.

But not just every days ideas. We can have grand ideas. Of things we long for, of the way we wish things would be. Or ideas that change the minds of others, or declare a general consensus (i.e. we will all take our shoes off in the house). Or legislation.

Yet, what it takes is a mere consensus: the agreement to use the 26 letters we learned to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". An agreement has to be made on the most fundamental of level (letters) and the order by which they are arranged. If we want to speak coherently with one another, we agreed to use these letters and use them in the order we both agree on, and to share those ideas in the syntax we agree on. Without this agreement we end up sounding like Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid, who speaks like Yoda, from  Russia.

But if we do agree on those three things, then we can share, not only duties, but ideas and emotions. By this sharing we can have an intimacy that we would not have known without:

I like you. I have an idea that I want your opinion on.

To be sure, this agreement is not necessary in order to share want to eat or what we want to do for the afternoon (try preparing a meal with a friend without vocal or written or signed words, it can be done). But it is with words that the mind and the heart are not only connected but solidified. It is with words that a bridge of the thoughts and feelings are shared, and if agreed upon, unity is built. And strengthened.

Words are the connecting bridge of ideas, and our actions are the outward manifestations of those ideas. It is impossible to act without an idea to give it volition. (If actions do occur without it, they are called seizures or involuntary tremors).

With this idea in mind, we can see by analogy, how things like creativity and innovation grows, and how the spirituality increases, in particular, the Christian walk. But we'll leave that for a future post.