Spirit Of The Word

One’s wise wife often chides when the Occxie savage, who stinks of butter, has unthoughtful things to say.

In where she always reminds me of kotodamashi or “the spirit of the word.”

Most of us (unless you are a psychopath), know the power of language, and what it can do both in the positive, and for certain, and in a much more powerful sense, negativity.

One can commit to someone for the rest of one’s life by saying a vow to only them.

On the other hand, one can crush someone’s heart by a few flippant words, leaving emotional scars that may never heal.

This becomes much more problematic when you are speaking a different language, especially Japanese in which the words carry so much weight.

Japan is ridged hierarchal system, and even something as seemingly innocuous as not adding a title to someones name, or misreading the social status of someone, and using the incorrect level of Japanese when addressing them is traumatic experience for all involved.

One’s wife also mentions hitokoto ooi or “saying something extra and unnecessary.”

And after reflecting on what was said, she is right, again.

The interesting thing about the Japanese is they are really prefer, in as much as possible, to communicate non-verbally, and this is written into their DNA from millenia ago when ones loose lips could get the head slices off in an instant.

Here is a post about Japanese communication called shin denshin, or, “Japanese telepathy”.

This describes how the Japanese use non-verbal communication based upon unwritten social conventions.

Moreover, there is a fascinating phrase kotodamashi no sakiwau kuni, or “the land where the spiritual power of language brings happiness to life.”

Remind oneself daily of the power of the word, and to use this power today while we citizens of our shared earth spread the spirit of goodwill and our common humanity inside the very important realm of kotodama.