Another year, another bunch of words

At the start of each calendar year, since I’ve started this blog, I’ve created a Wordle of Plop for a bit of fun and to see what it is I write about. I also do it to remind me that whatever I write, it’s all just words. Nothing more. They mean one thing to me and most likely mean something else to another. This also reminds me not to take things too seriously, that seeing is better than thinking, that silence is better than talking, that joy can be found anywhere if the mind is quiet enough. It reminds me that an entire cloud of words doesn’t equate to a single moment of seeing what words can never express. Truth is not found in words just as peace is not found in thoughts.

“Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself” – Mark Twain

“Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap” – George Bernard Shaw

“Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“The words of truth are always paradoxical.” – Lao Tzu

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” – Napoleon Bonaparte (or maybe someone else)

The word cloud above was created by Wordle.
It is a visualisation of the words found in this still "useless" blog.
I used a font called Duality.

It’s all just words

Almost a year ago I created a Wordle of this blog as a visualisation of what I had written up to that point. I decided to do another to see what had changed. The emphasis has changed as I would have expected, after all this blog is of a journey and one expects to see different sights when travelling upon a path even if the path will eventually only lead back to the start. But even if this journey just takes me around in circles I feel most fortunate to be on it and all the more so for living in an age where I can not only share  my journey so easily but also partake in the journeys of others.

For this I am grateful.

And this feeling of gratitude, this joy of sharing, this immersion in creativity I have found myself in over the past year is in part what life is about.

But it’s all just words and I doubt I will ever find the words to fully express the wonder I sense around me. Fortunately there are many gifted artists in this world who do a wonderful job of expressing that very wonder I feel through their art.

Thanks.

The word cloud above was created by Wordle.
It is a visualisation of the words found in this still "useless" blog.
I used a font called Duality.

Useless

I’ve been asked by some readers why I’ve described this blog as useless. This amazes me on two counts. First, that more than one person has visited this blog and two, that they are actually questioning the “useless” tag. They kindly inferred that it wasn’t useless to them. Thank you.

The best explaination I can give is the one I gave to Katie Muffett in response to her comment to one of my posts. When I refer to this blog as being useless I mean useless in the way that the word ‘water’ is useless to someone who is thirsty. It’s to remind myself that the word is not the thing it describes. The same can be said about images. The photograph is not always what it seems. Photographs, like words are merely pointers to the real.

The word cloud above was created by Wordle.
It is a visualisation of the words found in this "useless" blog.
I used a font called Duality.