How does language work? We take it for granted that it just does and never think to ask.
Yet we often speak endlessly at each other and never say or hear anything. And then we blame who we’re speaking with/at for not “hearing.” This happens all the time in politics, religion, nutrition & health, family relationships, and every subject imaginable.
Perhaps this is because we have little respect for, or interest in, understanding language. Perhaps our own speaking isn’t language, but a kind of spewing.
Language implies speaking and hearing. It happens simultaneously. Without hearing, there is no language: there is only noise.
In WAY TO LANGUAGE, Martin Heidegger suggests that speech that truly says something is hearing. In fact, it is “hearing in advance.” If we want more than noise to come out of our mouths, we need to take the time to hear what language has to say to us first.
This pause—this seeking of Truth, first—opens a space where we might have something meaningful to say. When we listen for the truth language is pointing to, it opens a window for others to do the same thing.
Then we have that delightful experience of engaging in conversations that seem to go beyond words or even language itself—everything from creative ways to frame life’s practical day-to-day challenges to Life’s Great Mysteries.
We’ve all had such conversations: around a campfire, hiking in the woods, in a coffee shop, studying the Bible, sharing in book clubs, creative work meetings, personal development conferences, and more. This is True Language at work.
It’s worth taking the time to understand it, and set up spaces where we can engage with it more.