The Ancient Greeks didn’t have a word for ‘blue.’ The color didn’t exist for them. Couldn’t see it without a word for it. –John Green ‘Turtles All the Way Down’
Gentle Reader, when was the last time you were at a loss for words?
Yesterday I was looking through and savoring some of the many photos my friend George has taken and gifted me with. As I was savoring George’s photos I realized that if I was asked to describe some of them that I would have no words to do so. I found these photos to be ‘Ineffable’ & ‘Sublime.’
Here is one of George’s photos that, for me, captures both the ineffable & the sublime.
Ineffable = incapable of being expressed or described in words.
Sublime = impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur; inspiring awe
As I sat savoring George’s photo I began to think about these two concepts – the ineffable & the sublime. I decided to put finger to key and see what emerged for me as I held these two concepts. Gentle Reader, here is some of what emerged into my consciousness (I am not sure how many ‘Parts’ there will be – more than one I suspect).
All animals can, to some extent, express themselves and communicate. What sets us human beings aside from all other animals is not only our ability to develop words and symbols, but also our being driven to draw a distinction between the utterable and the unutterable; to be stopped cold in our tracks by that which ‘is’ but cannot be expressed in words. I am thinking of the Ancient Greeks who ‘saw’ blue but could not express the wonder of ‘blue’ for they had no word for ‘blue.’
As I savored George’s photo I realized that no work of art ever brought to expression the depth of the unutterable, the essence of the ineffable and the sublime. Our attempt to convey what we see and cannot say is an everlasting theme and, at times, frustration for us human beings.
It seems to me that the ‘sensitive’ dimension of each of us knows that the intrinsic, the most essential, is never expressed for we have no words for them. The deep blue of the sea, the blue that stirs our hearts and calls to our souls, is something that no words can capture. What awakens us – perhaps even disturbs us or frustrates us – is not that which we grasp and describe with words but that which lies within our reach but resides just beyond our grasp.
I am not thinking of the quantitative aspects of George’s photo – or of the deep blue sea. I am striving to discern and hold and savor what is beyond the quantitative; I am striving to savor and hold both the ineffable and the sublime.
I was taught that I had to ‘master’ subjects. But who can ‘master’ beauty or peace? –Kathleen Norris
Searcher-Seeker 