Kia ora koutou, that line from the song by the Bee Gees, released as far back as January 1968, seemed to me at the time to sum up our major way of communicating. ‘Its only words… and words are all I have…’ Now I’m wondering…
There are all sorts of ways of communicating – a look, a smile, a frown – all signalling how we feel, what we don’t want or do want, but, whether spoken or signed, sung or shouted, typed in an official document or scrawled on a text, words are what we mainly use to communicate.
We make sounds from the time we are born and gradually, often by mimicking, we learn to form words and then we learn how to add them together, to ask, to say please and thank you, to say yes, to say no. We learn to read and if we’re lucky this happens early and as we read words in books or cartoons in comics, words in magazines or online, the world opens up. We begin to understand that words, those same words that tell stories, or are used to ask for more bread and honey please, can also be used to shout, swear, complain or harm.
We are given permission to pick a flower, we listen to others using words, we ask if we can go and play at our our friend’s place, and all the time we are learning. When we get a little older we are sent on messages on our own. ‘Mrs Smith, Mum says could she borrow a cup of flour please?’ And we know the answer will be yes, so we confidently hand over the cup.
We learn – slowly – the difference between ‘May I?’ and ‘Can I?’
We learn not only words but also all those other ways of communicating – we are little scientists in the lab of this thing called life and we study the adults in our lives, we observe the glances, frowns, sighs, coughs, cries, moans, songs, laughs, shouts, and we learn to translate them into words that tell us what they mean and then, very gradually, we begin to be interested in what they mean for others. We are observers from the moment of birth. We learn everything from others.
So if words are all I have and although I have a lot at my disposal, all I will say about the latest Covid case is that I made a few stupid decisions when I was young and its just my good luck that the internet was only in the movies and that the media, in the form of one local journalist, only reported on Council meetings. Yes there was a party line but we didn’t have a phone.
And to anyone out there who’s never made a mistake – well darling, you are absolutely free to use all and any words you like…
Renée
