407. Not So Distinct

Language is made up of distinctions that we denote with words. Sometimes these distinctions seem perfectly clear, like the difference between red and blue. We cannot immediately imagine a situation where an entirely red object is also somehow blue. Any such object would seem contradictory to us.

But in many other cases, the distinction between categories is not as clear, and the words seem to blur into each other. What we thought was certainly sweet in taste might begin to seem sour before seeming sweet again. What once appeared square might now appear oblong or round, even though our perspective has not changed. What was once loneliness might suddenly become joyful solitude before transforming back into loneliness.

It is not necessarily the case that our experiences are changing in these situations, but only that the applicable category in language seems to shift and we are inclined to describe the experience differently. When this happens we can feel frustration at our inability to accurately translate our perceptions into words.

But all that is happening is that we are realizing something about the nature of language. We are learning that its categories are not as clear or distinct as they might seem. Using language is always messy, with regular overlap in the meanings of words, which means our attempts at description are always only attempts.

It is sometimes even the case that two drastically different descriptions can point to the very same experience or perception. This unity between what was previously thought to be distinct offers an even greater lesson. It tells us something about the nature of distinction itself, about how it arises through practice and the creation of conventions through agreement with others.

Everything we distinguish is also part of a singular whole. For each and every distinction there is also no distinction. To see this is to begin to grasp an aspect of reality we often ignore: our experiences are not only free from language and its rules, but from human-created conventions of any kind.