[...And an insight that, for me, is vaguely connected with, among other things, spring and paradise: If you were someone who likes to put people into categories, you could divide Westerners in sƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ and non-verbal beings. Non-verbal people, prosaic people, use words as instruments. For a non-verbal person, words are no more ambiguous than, say, a hammer: words are the tools they use to express a fact, like a hammer is the tool they use to nail down a plank.

I am a ƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ: For me, everything is words. Words are not just tools, they are the medium I move through, and as such, they are snonƃıqɯɐ by nature. Communication is a more complex operation than nailing down a plank, because there are so sƃuıuɐǝɯ ʎuɐɯ as there are sɹǝʞɐǝds, sɹǝuǝʇsıl, and sʇxǝʇuoɔ put together. ('Gleich mit jedem Regengusse ändert sich dein holdes Tal, ach, und in demselben Flusse schwimmst du nicht zum zweiten Mal.')

‘Only connect’ (the prosaic with the ɔıʇǝod) is what we have been taught to do. Only connect, however, has never worked for me. Sooner or later, I am either getting bored or frustrated with the prosaic. I can never fully be myself when trying to only connect with non-verbal people. Prosaic is a language, as is ɔıʇǝod, and when sƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ try to connect with non verbal ones, they learn to speak Prosaic. The fact that we are sƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ enables us to pick up Prosaic pretty easily, just as we pick up, say, Spanish. Non-verbal beings, however, don’t speak ɔıʇǝod. Whenever you as a ƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ switch to ɔıʇǝod – the language in which you are, no matter what language you currently express yourself in - while with someone who only speaks Prosaic, you end up frustrated, because they make you feel ridiculous for lack of understanding. I am good at Prosaic, but only because I am deeply lɐqɹǝʌ, which means, deeply Un-Prosaic. And: I am tired of non-verbal beings. For me, only connect is not the answer. I am not interested in building any more ‘rainbow bridges that should connect the prose in us with the passion.’ I want to be a ƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ among other sƃuıǝq lɐqɹǝʌ. Where everything that matters already is. Where there’s no need for construction work with a hammer that always comes down on my own thumb.]