WRESTLMANIA

I had a professor once, actually a lot

of them walked through my head at

one time or another, trying to spill

their beans, hoping they might take

root and grow so tall I would be able

to climb to the tops of clouds and

wrestle with giants.

One of them said “The only way we can

think is with words.” Then, according to

Descartes, The more I can say, the more

I am? Our words make the phosphorus

storm in the dark cavern where we knit

ourselves into a comfortable sweater

measured by some technician with an

electroencephalogram.

Or are we more than the sum of our

vocabulary? How else can we

figure out what the hell is going on?

I’ve heard even the comatose use them

just in case their muscles and bones wake up.

Is there some way to know beyond what

we can say when armed with the O.E.D.?

Are the thoughts of crows, dolphins, pigs

and chimps conceived in some other way?

Do they care about God; do they have

existential crises; do they ponder beauty?

What do they think of us, their stewards,

sowing destruction wherever we go?

We are what we think, we are what we eat,

but we are rarely what we say. Maybe we

are what we ask? Maybe we are alone in a

sea of bits and pieces and each adds another

ion to fire when we are slapped in the face

by circumstances beyond our control, our

jigsaw never even close to completion.

But words cannot be enough, there is so

much out there we don’t even know needs

a name. What is the nature of, how do you

define, the difference between spirit and soul?

What if Socrates was right when he told his

Philistine judges “The unexamined life is not

worth living?” What is a life spent “not worth

living?” Is it just another nebulous bit of cosmic

detritus without meaning? Are they anything

more than that sperm and egg who never met and

were sloughed off in the toilet? Do the crows,

dolphins, pigs and chimps, or The Talking Dead

even have a soul, and if they do, what’s the point?

Reviews

[Soren]

A wonderful soliloquy pondering the language and worth of a soul. "We are rarely what we say" so true language a web of lies to catch flies. Language used as what sets us apart from animals, a mute (sic.) excuse, simply because we use a tongue and vocal chords to communicate do not other species use other methods possibly just as effective? Souls the last bastion of humanity, surely if there is such a thing beyond consciousness, we would be the only thing under creation privileged to have one. Great write with deep philosophical points