2024-06-20 - Words of Meaning 4.3.2

It was coming to understand that words had Meaning.

Not in a literal way, mind, it had already known that different words represented different things - ideas, feelings, items, greetings, partings, and so on and so forth. But there was so much more to words. Words could heal or hurt or charm or repel. Certain words were better, perhaps even more right than others for certain things.

But there was ever so much more! Even these 'right' words could hold different meanings, depending on whenhowwhywhere. Apologies, for instance. A simple 'I'm sorry' could be soft and playful - Mother and her favored Big One shared these often; or they could be hard, mournful (a feeling too Deep and Big for it to dwell on, to want to dwell on) - this kind was not a kind it ever wanted to need to give or be given.

Insults it found itself curling away from, trying to hide in a place where it was already so hidden. The meaning of these words was harsh and cruel, new emotions in its repertoire that it wished it could forget, to tear out like unwanted pages from a book. Those, it decided, it would have little use for, but it would mind those who used them freely and, perhaps, theirs was a melody that clashed with its own.

The phrase, the feeling, the meaning that most captivated it was so short, but somehow, so vast. I promise. Two words, but oh, what worlds they held. This was a connection formed, a Moment of Meaning, a bond as strong as any it had ever known. These words it held in its mind, turning them over, tasting how they felt when settled deep in its heart. As of yet, it did not have the experience, the thing that added weight to the words. But it had the Words. And, for now, that was enough.

I promise.