These Words...
BY NICK MARSHALL, GILBERT, AZ, USA — Over the past days I have been reading/researching on-line about Zambia. I've been reading out their customs and what not to eat, what not to drink; mostly precautions. I have read traveler's experiences and advice on Zambia and Africa in general. But after staring at the screen for hours my eyes started to get tired and blur the words, blend them altogether. Each word became indistinguishable from the next and it was as though I forgot the language, couldn't comprehend the words and they seemed all to fall into the same melting pot. But as I sat rubbing my eyes, clearing my head, I thought: words can only do so much. Words can only do so much to make you experience something. Words let you imagine, but a photograph shows you what something really looks like. To describe something, an experience you had, something you saw, it takes time to write and read, so many words. Plus the language barriers, but a picture, a photo transcends all language barriers. So many words can be expressed instantly in your mind with one look at a fabulous photo. In an instance where you are lost for words or don't know the right words to express yourself, show a photo of what you mean, and confusion is erased, the air clears and instantly people understand what you were saying. Even better than a photo, which captures a single moment, video, which captures a stream of moments. A photo can give an impression of how something is, but a video of something shows you exactly what went on at that time and place.
My point is: These words I've been reading and pictures I've seen of Zambia and Africa they only let me experience so much. But to go there, and not imagine how it will be, but to be in it, in the thick of it right there, to breath in the exotic aromas of Africa and Zambia, that is the only true way to experience. I can prepare all I want for the experience, but until the time when we land and step on Zambian soil, I can not really know what it is like in Africa. I feel that the first zephyr to pass over me in Africa will take my preparations to the wind and I'll be left with only a faint reminder of what I was going to do. I'll have to take a deep breath and suck in the experience the most I can and savor it, try to document it, for when it is just a memory, a wonderful memory of Africa, I can use these records to help me recall the time I stood on African soil and breathed the African air.
more on words: To say something is your word, but what holds even truer than your words is your actions. People can say all they want, but until the action is preformed of what you said they'd do, it doesn't amount to much. There was something Robby Brown said on one of his blogs that stuck out for me.
"I'm not as good with words as some of the crew. I'm a doer, not a talker. And I will do whatever she tells me to do and I will do it to the best of my ability."
He's a doer. And when the time comes to show the product of sweat and determination the doers will be standing higher than the sayers. He might of typed this on a whim, but I highly respect him for it. He will do what ever it takes, not say he'll do it, and waste time, but go and do it and get it done well. I like drawing inspiration from people I work with and talk to and see, it makes it more valuable and concrete. Getting inspiration from a dead poet or artist can be affective, but I think if you can talk with this person, hear more of what they have to say, or see what they do, it just seems a bit more real.
There's a passage in a book called Suicide Blond by Darcey Steinke that has always stayed with me.
"He used to tell me that a person who reads all day, then watches the sunset is just as valuable as a person who interacts with the world, but he didn't believe it and God knows this world doesn't either."