The importance of description

The camera cannot fully capture the beauty of what the eye sees.  Nor can words.  The eye captures images that are full of sound, feeling and inspiration on behalf of the viewer.  Photographers, artists, and poets strive to capture these images to then share them with the world.  My goal is to test the theory that it takes as many as 1,000 words to describe an image, or a scene. 

I've always known the importance of a good vocabulary; the importance of choosing each word to mean exactly what you want to say.  Saying, "I'm happy" is less effective than saying, "I'm excited" or "I'm blissful."  You know exactly what that person is feeling when they use the word 'excited' or 'blissful' instead of 'happy'.  The intensity is increased.  The emotion specified.  The picture is clearer. 

Too often we forgo these specifically descriptive words for the more common, less effective versions of them.  This leads to ineffective communication and leaves one or both parties feeling unheard.  How many times do you use the phrase, "That's not what I meant..."  Saying what you truly mean is 80% of communication with another person and yet we all struggle with this daily.  At work, we feel unheard, at home, under-appreciated, with our friends, misunderstood.

That's why we like taking pictures.

If you tried to describe the incredible beauty of a fading sunset, you could be at it for hours trying to completely reiterate what you saw; the colour, the splendour, the glory of it all.  The other party then uses your words to paint a mental picture.  However, it is nearly impossible for that person to truly know what you saw when you looked out over the horizon at that setting sun.  Partly this has to do with the emotional impact it had on the viewer in the first place.  Trying to describe something is difficult, but trying to describe how something made you feel is futile.  They may think they understand how that sunset made you feel utterly free, yet they cannot feel it themselves.  What they might feel after your description is merely an echo of what you felt.  

We've all heard the phrase, "A picture is worth a thousand words."  It succinctly sums up the fact that our eyes are truly windows to our world.  They allow us to see the beauty, the horror, the full scope of our existence.  But what we see, or experience is clouded by what we feel, and even how our brains process this information.  Personality types not only influence how we communicate, but also how we see, interpret, speak and listen.  What each of us sees is unique.  To a poet, a butterfly floating up on high is seen as a poem.  To a scientific minds, it's an insect with specific characteristics that make it a bug.  In reality, it's a butterfly; how we see it makes it change. 

With each entry I will strive to paint pictures of ordinary, every-day things that are common to everyone.  It will be my attempt to describe my world to you.  What I see, how I interpret what I see, and how it made me feel.  This is a test of vocabulary.  This is a test of word paintings.  This will raise awareness of our world and insert it behind the black and white text that are words.  

I want you to see what I see.