Monday, September 15, 2008

The Same Words

There are three words in the English language (the number of which varies depending on the language in question) which many spend their lifetimes waiting to hear: I love you (some will argue that the correct form is “I am in love with you”). But are those words enough as proof for said proclamation of love, or rather, is it enough to hear them from the object of our affection or is it necessary to read them in order for them to obtain a life of its own? What do written words posses that makes them so powerful and is lacked by spoken words?
Before continuing, a clarification is in order. When I speak of a love in a written/material form, by no means I am referring to a certificate of marriage or expensive gifts. The more accurate interpretation of such reference would be a simpler item: a love letter as a representation of what many consider love. The question raised by such statement is quite controversial: Why do certain people have the need for said item in order to believe what another person had to say? Yet, the answer is quite clear: to write of such sentiment elevates its importance.
Nevertheless, the inquire is further complicated by the fact that there is absolutely not any prove that written words are more logically valid than are spoken words. Many people, in fact, would argue that simply hearing the so yearned for declaration of love is enough. For others, however, it is necessary to see them written in some form. When a person states the love felt for another out loud, the words are gone the second they are uttered. They disappear with the wind and will never come back, only the memory of having heard them remains. But even memories are lost with the passage of time. Those words are, of course, not meaningless in said cases in which they are only voiced. But when someone says, “I love you,” it is necessary for those words to be repeated often. Otherwise, the person who was the object of such assertion will forget very easily, specially, if there is not anything that will materially serve as a reminder. That is not to say that there is an intrinsic necessity for more than listening to those words, on an everyday basis, perhaps. Yet, when those words can be found in written form, the universe seems to be conspiring with a good end in mind.
Love letters have a very special significance because they have been used for centuries as promises of a love that, although it might never be fulfilled due to unpredictable circumstances, they are a breath of life to those who receive them. In that way, in the present day love letters are a symbol of that romantic kind of non-existent love that millions dream of encountering at some point during their lives. That is precisely the reason they are so important: whether the love for which many await exists or not, those letters serve as an indication that it real. When a love letter reaches the hands of the intended recipient, the world seems to stop if only for the minutes it takes to read the words printed in the paper. Then, life goes on. Whether said letter expresses a true state of affairs or not, does not matter much since the very letter is evidence for what it expresses.
There is, evidently, a difficulty with such assumption. There is clearly not any possible way for the reader to corroborate what the words in the letter seem to covey. It is a rather sad conclusion considering that the feelings entertained by the receiver of said letter tend to escalade in proportion after the letter is read. At the end, a love letter is a simple paper with words written on it. There is not much more to it. In fact, anyone can write a love letter because it does not require for the writer to observe the interlocutor by which to judge the way in which what is been expressed is discerned. The challenge lies precisely in standing in front of the person who is to receive the message when one expresses it since that is the most accurate way to confirm the veracity of what is said.
Therefore, whether written or verbally expressed words are not enough to provide the intended message. Suffice to say that images say more than a thousand words.

xoxo,
Poison Drops

©Copyrighted 2008

2 comments:

Adamant Equipoise said...

While images may be reflected upon with words, love itself eludes all description.

kairos88 said...

someone needs to come up with a better word than "love."

what do people think it is describing anyway?