Tumbling Thoughts

I've got an awful lot of thoughts tumbling through my head today, so let's see if I can sort them out real quick before I go clean the living room.  We have people over, and the Spanglers will never be able to claim that we're neat people.  Anyway.

Words.  Words mean stuff.  I mean, obviously.  Duh.  But think about that for a second.  Every single word you've said or written, be it a one-word answer or a carefully thought out (or not thought out) research paper, means something.  We may not always be able to clearly define what the word means, but it does mean something.  Words hold power.  So do names.  I think that's part of the reason so many myths out there revolve around the concept of someone's "true name." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, no problem.  If you're curious, go look up Egyptian myths on the topic)  My point is, though, words can easily lift someone up to the highest pinnacle, and shove someone down into the deepest darkest part of the ocean.  It all depends on how they're wielded.  Words can be sharper than a double-edged sword, true, but only if used properly.  

I think that's why books are so important and have lasted for so long.  People want to know the emotions and thoughts and feelings they have wrestled with their whole lives or just for the season aren't unique to them.  They want to be sure that there is such a thing as hope, they want reassurance that in the end, something better lasts, holds out, wins.  I also think that Satan is aware of this and that the Master of Lies himself is ready to take those outcomes and that desire and twist it so that it blows up in our faces.  But the good news is that he's already lost.  How do you think the idea that the light and good always win has survived so long?

Related to this, though, is the concept of lightness and darkness.  Have you ever sat in a room in the utter dark?  The power has gone out at night, and there's no light at all.  Or maybe you're in a closet, or your room, and there is literally no light.  Anywhere.  None.  Just pitch black, empty, inky space all around you.  There's no depth to it, and you can almost feel it clinging to you as you stand or sit there.  There's no light source for your eyes to find, though they search desperately for it.  They can't adjust to begin seeing the furniture around you, there's simply nothing there.  But then you reach for the matches in front of you, and as soon as you light them, the light blossoms.  It combats the darkness all around you, and in that environment, one tiny flame can literally light up an entire room.  It's incredible.  

I'm going to bring up the flip side, though, and I hesitate to say that it's also true, because it's not, although it feels like it is sometimes.  Have you ever seen weak light? Like the last fading rays of sunshine before the sun is officially down.  Shadows are encroaching, and the light around you doesn't seem to have power anymore.  Physically, this is obvious. But that candle I told you about earlier? It's not terribly helpful at this moment when the light isn't quire bright enough yet, but it's still not dark enough.  We need a bigger and brighter light. 

I've been speaking slightly metaphorically this whole time, and obviously there's more to the story than my metaphor.  It breaks down pretty quickly.  But it was still an interesting thing to me to think about the connections between light and positive words, and dark and negative ones.  There's so much to talk about and think about that I wish I could keep writing, but unfortunately I'm out of time and if I keep talking I'll lose someone.  

Have a good evening!

~Aletheia