>Eloquence is sometimes lyrical, sometimes
powerful, but always an overstatement
and always a projection.

Dishonest people believe in words
rather than reality.<

>The way to be most helpful to others is
for me to do the thing that right now
would be most helpful to me.

I am not interested so much in what I
do with my hands or words as what I do
with my feelings. I want to live from the
inside out, not from the outside in.

Most words evolved as a description of
the outside world, hence their inadequacy
to describe what is going on inside of me.

Wanting to do something is a desire, not
a sentence. When I "decide" what I want
to do I translate my desire into a sentence
and then follow the sentence; I take
the desire out of my body and put it in
my mind. Asking myself, "What do I
want to do?" brings to mind my habitual
answers to that question, it brings in
irrelevant things I "should" be wanting to
do, and it ignores the fact that there may
be no adequate words to decribe what I
am feeling this moment.<

>If the desire to write is not accompanied
by actual writing then the desire is not
to write.<

>It is not necessary to always think words.
Words often keep me from acting in a
fully intuitive way. Fears, indecision and
frustration feed on words. Without words
they usually stop. When I am trying to
figure out how I should relate to some-
one, especially a stranger, if I will stop
thinking words, and listen to the situation,
and just be open, I find I act in a more
appropriate, more spontaneous, often
original, sometimes even courageous way.
Words are at times good for looking back,
but they are confining when I need to
act in the present.<

--Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself (My struggle to become a person). © 1970 by Hugh Prather


Thoughts? Reactions?

My reaction? If he distrusts and dislikes words so much, why does he choose to use them to communicate his ideas to others?

How else then, if not through language? (sans vusual art and music?).

And, akshually®, this was originally written as a diary to himself, never intended for other eyes.

>How else then

Which was kinda my point. Even if written only for hisownself, it seems kinda ironic that he is compelled to use words to tell how much he dislikes words.

Makes me VERY glad I am not the age I was in 1970. My God, the self-absorption. My honest reaction? I'm sorry, but it's, "Who the hell cares?".

it seems kinda ironic that he is compelled to use words to tell how much he dislikes words

He doesn't "dislike" words. He is saying words can be inadequate and even confining.

Shakespeare's Macbeth says something similar:
"Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives."

Prather says:
"Words often keep me from acting in a
fully intuitive way. Fears, indecision and
frustration feed on words. Without words
they usually stop."

Words are tools to get at meaning and feelings, they can never become "meaning" or "feelings" themselves. Prather respects his tools but he is mindful of their limitations.

It has been said that of the 3 arts, music, painting and poetry, poetry ranks lowest because words can never be anything more than an approximation of feelings.

It has been said that of the 3 arts, music, painting and poetry, poetry ranks lowest...

tho' never said in paint.

>It has been said that of the 3 arts, music, painting and poetry, poetry ranks lowest...

tho' never said in paint.



LOL! A very palatable hit.

palatable hit

and malodious...