“Would you like to make a comment?”
Sometimes I wonder if I’ll run out of things to say. I’ll run out of new ideas. I’ll run out of new understandings.
I wonder if my words, my comments on the world even really matter. After all, someone out there somewhere probably said it better once upon a time.
I assume we all feel this way at some point.
Maybe there’s only a finite combination of words, and they have already been combined in all possible ways in the volumes of books and posts and speeches that already exist.
Maybe that’s why I often seek the words of other people to guide my thoughts and my prayers. Didn’t they already say it best?
Why add my own words into the mix?
Celebrated poet and author Mary Oliver wrote about this exact wondering. She said: “”Poets must read and study…but, also, they must learn to tilt and whisper, shout, or dance, each in his or her own way, or we might just as well copy the old books. But, no, that would never do, for always the new self swimming around in the old world feels itself uniquely verbal. And that is just the point: how the world, moist and bountiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response.”
I like this image of the world calling out to each of us to respond. It’s like the eager puppy that kept jumping on me this morning saying, “Talk to me! I’ve been waiting all night to listen just to you!” (Or maybe he just wanted pets, but his face often looks like he thinks my words are pretty darn important).
There are always new things happening in the world, in our lives… a new way to explore, a new way to engage, a new way to listen.
We can stay silent. We can believe that our words don’t matter or that someone else said them better once before.
Or we can choose to make a comment. We can choose to add our story into the mix.
After all there’s never been another you.
There’s never been another me.
And therefore our comments, our outlook on the world is unique and valuable.
Without it, the world has a little less color, a little less light.
Without it the picture is incomplete.
So, “would you like to make a comment?”
