Language is a tool like a hammer

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I have realized that for me, I use language like a tool. It's just something I use sometimes to get what I want. A hoop I have to jump through. I have no internal compulsion to speak to others. My sense of self is not inherently wrapped up with my use of language. When I speak, it is like picking up a tool and using it for a purpose, then putting it down when I'm done. Like a hammer is not actually a part of my hand when I use it, language is not actually a part of me.

when all you got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

well the misuse of language can do a lot of damage, like the hammer

i sometimes feel like language is just a tool, and sometimes actually feel connected to and through it, I guess it depends on the situation...

there are definately times when if i could get what i needed/wanted without talking about it i'd be much happier... but actually i talk to myself quite a bit when i'm alone..

Jeff

Language is a deadly weapon, by the way

I think language is a tool for everyone.

You use it to convey a thought, an idea.
You use it to get the things you want.
You use it to convey, an expression of love & affection.
to order a cheeseburger.

I think the difference, I have noticed, is that NT's use it to take up space/time. As they are uncomfortable in silence. I think because they are driven to be in the company of others, they feel alone without the verbal static they call talking. Unlike AS people people that can be comfortably alone. Some people would rather rattle on for hours about which color pink nail polish (cars, sports, whatever) they prefer. rather than sit peacefully in silence. Luckily my NT husband & I can sit and not have to speak. We are present in each others company yet do not find the quietness awkward.

body language is also a language of which many among us do not understand. The Native Americans believed that if you spoke too much you would lose your soul, therfor they developed gesture language, whcih again was used for deaf/mute people.

Buddha said that when one speaks too much he is hollow inside like an empty drum

I am about to drop the hammer, and dispense some indiscrimate justice!

That sounds similar to what I experience with language. But mine's different in so far as that to me this is a tool that does not fit myself well.

It's just too much wrong, there's a better system needed than having to converse in language for me.

this is probably going to sound really nuts...but

sometimes I get so exhausted from words....and especially when I communicate and I get misunderstood or I misunderstand...

that it's a relief to speak my language - and it's also a relief to write it....looks like gibberish...though....so I don't usually express it in public....or the forum...although I've done it a couple of times on my blog....it was a relief - because I felt like I communicated but then I erased it because I was afraid that I would lose friends here becuase of it.

Talking can be exhausting. I truly enjoy using language to communicate but only when we're actually using language to express ourselves or bond or talk about something important. I do not value white-noise talk, i.e. small talk about the weather. I think that really does come from discomfort with silence. Or people assume that if you're not constantly speaking to them you must not like them.

It deffinately feels like the wrong tool for the job sometimes, but there isn't always a more applicable tool in the toolbox either....


hmm...

maybe it's not language in general that's my problem... it that the words to express EXACTLY what i mean don't exist or wouldn't be understood correctly or at all by the listener


Jeff

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