The Lyre bird: The empowerment of words

There it was again, a crying baby from among the trees but where? What was a baby doing in the forest in these parts? What was happening to her? They searched frantically and every time they thought they had closed in on the source, they had found nothing. Nothing but a bird. The Lyre bird, or perhaps a more apt name would be the Liar bird.

The Lyre bird is a bird that excels at mimicry and can reproduce nearly any sound from its environment whistles, chainsaws, car engines and voices. It is a master manipulator.

What would you think if it called your name, made a noise you did not like, insulted you? Would you be angry at the bird? Would you want to wring its neck? Would your emotions rise up and would your ego be hurt? It is just a bird, it does not do any harm with its mimicry, it is only when people associate the sounds it creates to a concept they hold, that meaning rises. With its skilled voice, it has unwittingly triggered someone it may not know exists with no more intention than to attract a mate with its voice.

Do you understand what I say, do you see where this leads? Words are just words until connection to a meaning is applied. Many do not believe this, they say words hold power and it is true but not in the way they think. Words only hold power because we empower them with our concepts, we give them wings and when they anger us is not the word that does it but our associations.

Words are tools of communication to transfer ideas from one to another, like dandelion seeds on the wind looking for a place to take root. We are the soil that the words land upon but, we need not tend to the weeds that grow, we need not let them guide us.

Why are you upset at the words of others? Can't you listen to the voice of the wind without being blown over or must you always be swept up in the current? And this is where it gets interesting for me.

If you heed the words of some, why do you not heed those of all? If words themselves have power, the source matters not. If you are injured by some and healed by others, how come it is important who says what? We are fighting concept only, like a hungry man trying to get sustenance from the foods of his imagination, we are delusional.

Yes, we are likely all shifted, all manipulated, all pushed by the words that we hear but it is not because we must be. We can listen detached from the emotional response or, catch it before it becomes action. We need not be triggered because society says we must respond according to the engineered rules, jumping like a monkey taught to dance. To do so is to be a puppet of the whims of what passes another's lips, be it friend or foe, priest or government, parent or lover.

Why do we give up our agency to be pushed and pulled by the simplest of tricks, no more needed than a word spoken or typed? The slightest slight and our emotions flare up like a dead tree struck by a bolt of lightning. Are we listening to what they have to say, or are we struck by the way they said it?

In all of the time I have spent on this earth, I have been in a minority group and as a result, I have heard it all, from childhood until this day. I have realised that I have never been hurt by anything anyone has said, that I didn't denote as harmful. My pains are mine, no matter how ignorant, abusive and small-minded a speaker may be.

I advocate for freedom of speech and responsibility of action. I support the quest for improvement and truth. I understand that we must continually change our approach to this world. How can I hold these if I am unwilling to listen and instead enforce my emotional will on the words of others. For me, I welcome the discussion to solve the issues we face and fear the silence due to the risk of offence.

There are good and bad ideas, words just transfer them between points. When I listen to the words of others I am hoping to hear more than the mimicry of a Lyre bird, the repeated sounds of what they have heard before, echoes of their past. I hope to hear something new, something that can make tomorrow better than it was today, even if it is not what I want to hear. I want the chance to decide for myself without the social censorship because others cannot control themselves, the triggered.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]

This is a little extension article to another from today.