Lynn commented the other day that "scared" and "sacred" were very similar words. Sometimes, old advice for good or holy living is "Fear God and uphold His commandments". So, maybe the right sort of being scared is related to the Sacred.
Lynn plays many word games every day so it does not surprise me that she sees the letters involved and the way they can be arranged. A quick search on "When did humans first begin to speak?" yields the answer "2 million years ago". Writing is said to have been invented in the last 10,000 years. So, roughly, speech is 200 times as old as writing. Babies babble and I think I have read that babbling is similar the world over.
But both activities, speaking and writing, have to do with language. Susan Langer has a memorable example in her book "Philosophy in a New Key". She says,"Say 'John' and John's dog will start wagging his tail while his wife will say "What about John?" The human holds the CONCEPT of John in mind and thinks about the concept. Where, when, why, who, how about John?
I am intrigued by what language does for humans. This blog post from 2009
https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-is-real.html
salutes the power of language, which in today's world of iPhones and social media does not really need further emphasis. Still, our wiring and our throats and our brains are such that we can use concepts and words, even alone, to distance ourselves from something scary or to get up close and analyze feelings, facts and events. We get so used to using language, including internal language and notes and journals for just ourselves, that sometimes we have to re-learn and re-emphasize the difference between words or concepts and actual physical facts and events out in the world.
We often use the test that if we can put something into words, spoken or written, we understand it.
We can store so much in a word that we can be blind to how much is not included. I watched the final game between the US women's soccer team and the Netherlands. It is easy and companionable to ask "Did you see the US play the Dutch team?" and hear back "Yes, I saw the game" when what I saw and felt and remember might be very different from what you saw and remember.
