Words, words, words
Planes, cars, trains, boats, internet for communication. Different speed, different price, different energy. But, we still have a more powerful tool: language. Words to express our opinions, wishes, pains. Words to show surprise, fear, happiness. Words to convey knowledge, feelings, emotions, gossips. Nevertheless, our language has not always been the same. Being, as it is, a living being, it has gone a long path. Unfortunately, there is not much public recognition for the early stages of our mother tongue. I am proud they have done it here. Just this monument to remember The Spanish Language Path: El Camino de la Lengua Española.
If you look at it, the monument is a kind of huge sheet of paper with a feather, symbol of the ancient writers.
It mentions the places where the first written documents were found.
The reading is from one of Santa Teresa's works. More or less: How great knowledge and letters are for everything! I like the quotation.
And the chosen setting couldn't have been better: this garden opposite the Rastro Wall where Doña Guiomar balcony is. That lady who communicated with her banned lover in the mountain with her handkerchief. Isn't it the perfect place to celebrate communication?
May our languages never get tired of us!
2 comments:
I agree: knowledge is power, and words are the tool and the weapon of this power. A tool, if used in a creative and peaceful way, a sharp weapon, if used with malice. Just as them, communication can be a path to reach our fellows or a labyrinth.
Our language is part of our being, a living ancestor and yet part of the future, too; and I think we should respect and try to know and understand its history as we try to know our own family's history. As them, it can not desert us, but it can hide its wisdom and beauty from our eyes. And it would be a big loss.
The monument is really beautiful, and so is the post.
And yes, it's the perfect place, because it reminds of the power that communication has to express and transmit feelings, to overcome space and time, about its multiple forms. Even beyond words. Our face, voice, eyes,our body are instruments for communicating. It's vital for a social being, such as we are.
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