Semantics

Listening to the Nouvelle Vague cover of the Tuxedomoon classic, I am thinking of words and their meaning.

In a Manner of speaking, I just want to say
That I could never forget the way
You told me everything, By saying nothing

In a manner of speaking, I don't understand
How love in silence becomes reprimand
But the way that i feel about you, Is beyond words

Oh give me the words, Give me the words
That tell me nothing
Give me the words, Give me the words
That tell me everything

In a manner of speaking, Semantics won't do
In this life that we live we only make do
And the way that we feel, Might have to be sacrificed

So in a manner of speaking, I just want to say
That just like you I should find a way
To tell you everything, By saying nothing.

Oh give me the words Give me the words
That tell me nothing
Give me the words Give me the words
That tell me everything



I was thinking of the meaning of words and how fluid it is, how much it depends on who you say what to, when. While this is clearly true about big words like 'love', 'friends' etc it works also with seemingly factual words like 'white' and 'sweet'. Even more disturbingly so this is the same with entire conversations. Some time ago I saw an old friend with whom we don't really have much in common anymore. I had a good time with her and we talked about important things. But the feeling I got afterwards was so empty and void. This surprised me because I thought that the bad thing would have been if we didn't talk about 'serious' stuff and horsed around instead. However, I had this dodgy feeling that although we had a 'deep' conversation, this was still not enough and in the end not illustrative at all about our relationship. I had never felt before that this was possible. For me people fell into two categories: people I talk shit to and people I talk serious stuff with. The former are my friends the latter are my acquaintances. This time I felt that the topic of a conversation does not define a relationship and to put it differently, the words you use do not define a relationship. You might say more or less with someone, use heavy words or light ones, but they don't necessarily mean what you say. The act of conveying meaning is much more complex that just choice of words. This is exciting but also deeply upsetting. How will I get my message across if I cannot even rely on choice of words for it? There must be some other conventional way of people to do that.