I always have one eye on trying to find universal language. In cliche it is love, but I mean actual spoken words. My life long dream is to be able to speak every language and so to speak to every single person, but I don't have a facility for language. In fact, I've spent 10 years learning a combination of French, Italian and Spanish, and the net affect is a rolodex where all the words live. I can create a sentence without tense or masculine/feminine descriptors, but all I can really promise is that it is not English. There's little probability the words I've just said are in any ONE language. Unfortunately, that's not how my mind organized it as we went.
But today, I heard it. Listening to Tomas Transtromer read his poem "Alone" about a car crash, I heard him say "Clang" a sound made by a metal pole snapped in place. Aha!!!! This is it. This is our universal language. We all have experiences that have sound, and we all have made up words to immitate the sound. Hooray!!!! I've got it. Of course, there is the element that we hear differently. In Mexico they say dogs say "Gua, Gua" instead of "Ruff, Ruff", but we're getting closer at least. ; )
In what other ways are simple truths shared? Subject matter is universal. We all share one human experience and have many words to talk about it, one perspective per person, one language per people.
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