In high school, I had a long ride to and home from school. I often read on the streetcar rides and one of the books that made the most impact on me was The Tyranny of Words by Stuart Chase (1938). I was reading it about 20 years later but it opened my eyes for the rest of my life to the tangles we sometimes get into with words. That book led me to "Language in Thought and Action" and other books by the man of many talents, S.I. Hayakawa. Both books left with me with an interest in words and tricks they can play. I remember Hayakawa's advice that a person who says,"Flat tire?" when you are hot and sweaty and in the midst of a irritating tire change is often simply opening a conversation and does not deserve to be attacked.
These memories come back to me as I listen to the statements about Heidegger and Wittgenstein concluding that Western philosophy has sometimes blundered into making mountains out of molehills, inventing problems where there aren't any. I had a minor in graduate school in philosophy and spent many hours reading to and listening to questions and discussions of truth, logic, existence and meaning. Most of that time, I felt the issues were of little value. I had been teaching the 5th grade for 4 years before that and I was very clear that the issues and problems of teaching well had nothing to do with the reading and listening.
As I learned about Eastern philosophy and the practice of silence and stillness, I thought,"Yes! Just as Psalm 46 says, 'Be still...' " Shutting up, turning off the stream of voice and thought can solve many things. Doing so puts much in perspective, illuminates corners, brings peace in ways that the use of words cannot.
