This past week I had the pleasure of going to a lecture at a local college. It was part of a yearly series of scientific lectures where the recipient accepts an award for being an explorer in some facet of the scientific world. It is an event I always look forward to. Not just because I learn so much about a part of science I might be totally unaware of but because the speakers are so riveting. I am fascinated by people who are artists with public speaking. I admire people who are masters of our language and can convey their thoughts with such skill. I am a fan of eloquence.
In our current world where we substitute emojis for a sentence, use autocorrect for spelling and grammar and tweet complex ideas in 140 characters we need to make room for eloquence. If hearts and minds are to be changed to make the world a better place then we need to speak out which is the Latin root ( eloqui ) of eloquent. It is not surprising that even the use of the word eloquence in conversation has decreased dramatically over the past decades. We don't value it as much. Maybe we don't think of it as much. Until we hear someone who has it. Then you can appreciate its power. In a future where computers and robotics will be increasingly taking the place of humans we need to keep our ability to think and convey our thoughts through the spoken word. This is what separates us from machines. The visceral immediate turning of the heart because of receiving human words. Words on fire.
And that is another definition of eloquence. Eloquence is words on fire. And fire changes things. So be mindful of the power of the words within you. Speak out.
(Graph found by doing a search on Google.com of "definition of eloquence" and clicking on the "Translations, word origin, and more definitions" link.)
In our current world where we substitute emojis for a sentence, use autocorrect for spelling and grammar and tweet complex ideas in 140 characters we need to make room for eloquence. If hearts and minds are to be changed to make the world a better place then we need to speak out which is the Latin root ( eloqui ) of eloquent. It is not surprising that even the use of the word eloquence in conversation has decreased dramatically over the past decades. We don't value it as much. Maybe we don't think of it as much. Until we hear someone who has it. Then you can appreciate its power. In a future where computers and robotics will be increasingly taking the place of humans we need to keep our ability to think and convey our thoughts through the spoken word. This is what separates us from machines. The visceral immediate turning of the heart because of receiving human words. Words on fire.
And that is another definition of eloquence. Eloquence is words on fire. And fire changes things. So be mindful of the power of the words within you. Speak out.
(Graph found by doing a search on Google.com of "definition of eloquence" and clicking on the "Translations, word origin, and more definitions" link.)
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