As spring opens its wings, we hear her sing. The return of the chorus of birdsong reverberates hope and life. And we breathe a sigh that the grip of winter’s icy fingers is melting.
The song of a bird is a beautiful reminder of God’s order, but it is more than that to the bird. It communicates. It has purpose. I’ll come back to that in a moment.
I first heard about Twitter from my wife. I was searching for a way to contact a specified group quickly about important issues (an upcoming meeting, and update on a specific issue, etc.) and she suggested Twitter as a tool being used for that very thing.
So I logged on, signed up, and began to explore. Twitter seemed to be an even more immediate and streamlined tool for communicating meaningful information than e-mail.
Shortly after my probing, Twitter as an “app” (a semi-word I have grown to hate) was a-buzz (mixed metaphor?) and being used, not by professionals for communicating business, but by teenagers, bored sports stars, and anyone who had a mobile communication device and a few seconds to spare. Everyone was talking about it. A vocabulary began to form. I watched in fascination as more and more people twittered and tweeted every thought, action and emotion of their lives to countless cyber-social voyeurs.
Most of the updates shared are simple and mundane. Some of them I don’t even understand. Twitter has now become a place to share your every thought, most of which no one cares a (t)whit about.
I wish this were an only recent development. Texting on cell phones, chatting online, and even e-mail have been media for communicating meaninglessly for several years now. Once it got easy to fire off words, words began to lose their power.
But let’s back up. How meaningless are the words that fill our casual conversations? Do we talk about things that have little to no meaning?
Is not the bulk of the entertainment industry focused on meaningless communication? I must admit I am a fan of Seinfeld (a show proud to claim that it is about NOTHING). The word “entertainment” means “something diverting or engaging.” But isn’t the idea of communication to draw attention and focus to an issue, not divert from it?
In ancient cultures, words held great power. Consequently, words were treasured and shared with great thought. Even when language began to be written, the effort and expense of recording words demanded that each word be precise and powerful.
The song of the tender, feathered creatures outside our kitchen windows twitter, not mindlessly (oh, maybe occasionally), but because they have something to communicate.
What if words were harder to come by?
What if our breath became labored so that our words had to be chosen with precision?
What if every conversation had to be put in the form of song?
What if congress passed a tax on each word we uttered (seems more likely every day)?
What if our vocabulary were trimmed to 100 words?
What if every letter we typed on any device sent a shock through our bodies as we pressed the button?
What if we chose to be silent more?
What if we spoke less and thought more?
Might our words become empowered again?
Might communication actually reach its intended goal?
God spoke and the world was made.
Imagine the potential.
