The Opposite of Labels – Bringing Things to Life
We need labels because we need to simplify things in order to make sense of them. But, I find often-times gets in the way of communication since it over-simplifies it. Like – a friend says his new girlfriend is great – but surely she is not great 100% of the time. Likely she has something wrong with her – like ugly feet or is late sometimes.
So – what the friend means is that she is mostly great or usually great, but since qualifiers get exhausting, we just simplify the whole pile of experiences and impressions into one word – great. Ah well, good enough we think. The same thing goes for the negative.
And, I think that most people that sit down and write seriously struggle with the simplifying aspect of words. But, dwelling on things and expressing them creatively can have the opposite and value-creating effect. Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth says this on expanding beyond labels:
This is what great artists sense and succeed in conveying in their art. Van Gogh didn’t say "That’s just an old chair." He looked, and looked and looked. Then he sat in front of a canvas and took up the brush. The chair itself would have sold for the equivalent of a few dollars. The painting of that same chair today would fetch in excess of $25 million.*
So – the expression of something has far more value than the thing itself after some skilled contemplation from the right person. I find this very interesting.
*Pg 26 of this edition
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