Words

Several beautiful birds have visited my garden recently. I hadn’t ever seen such delicate and lovely creatures before, so I looked them up to see what they were called. One was a worm-eating warbler, the other a house finch (sometimes called a common house finch). Needless to say, the names were a huge let down. They can’t begin to describe the joy these small creatures bring, their exquisite markings, their bright curiosity.

But then words do let us down so often, don’t they?

Naming something may bring us a measure of reassurance. We saw it, we have identified it. Yet names alone can never convey the delicate complexity of the creature itself, let alone my reaction to it.