I visited my eleven week old grandson yesterday. He is smiling, cooing and making great effort to communicate. He wants the connection to us, and he's bursting with his need to learn how to express himself and tell us as well as listen to us. Speech is elementally for that purpose. We are beings whose need to connect is vital. And many other animals have this impulse and need. So we mirror his sounds and he ours, and light up with smiles when he vocalizes and show our joy that he's joining our world of sociability. His delight in this wiggles his whole body. It clearly feels right to him, and enjoyable.
Sometimes I think these babies teach us lessons we need to relearn: that speech is for sharing and connection and love. That other intentions are suspect and we should pause and reflect whether our purpose in speech is positive or hurtful. A baby doesn't have the urge to hurt anyone ever. That is where we start from. And we would do well to get back to that premise. If we speak from connection we will experience joy. We are acknowledging our social nature and need for others. Anything else is a delusion fostered by our ego.
No comments:
Post a Comment