Cindy directs us to a fascinating article in the NY Times about writing and reading. I hadn’t given it a great deal of thought before now, but for most of human history, writing wasn’t done with fingers punching letters on a keyboard. Wordsworth composed a 149-line poem in his head on a drive one afternoon and dictated it when he arrived. Augustine once remarked with surprise that Bishop Ambrose could read without moving his tongue, because silent reading is a very recent phenomenon. Reading and writing were both "out loud" activities.
The author of the article (Richard Powers) presents the riveting suggestion that our qwerty keyboards have in fact truncated our ability to think in entire paragraphs like our forebears. He wrote the entire article using speech-recognition software. I wrote this entire blog post with my fingers, in complete silence (except for "clickety-clack" and ever-so-faint hum of my computer fan). Makes me want to try speech-recognition software again, speaking words out into the air like the poets and orators of old! Or maybe like a guy in his slippers talking to his computer.
But the article also made me think about the written word and the spoken word, too. Is it enough to read our Bibles silently and "understand" the content? Or is there really something to the spoken Word of God? Is private Bible study enough, or do we need the public reading of Scripture? Can poetry be fully digested if it is merely looked at as opposed to spoken? Is silent prayer just as good as spoken prayer? Or is there something to a word being spoken that creates a new dynamic in an atmosphere or relationship? Is it enough that my wife "understands" that I love her, or do I need to speak the words to her every day? Perhaps the spoken words really do something, really perform actions…
If so, we shouldn’t balk at liturgical worship, or any other life ritual that doesn’t always make us feel warm fuzzies. If it’s important for me to actually say "I love you" to my wife, even when she knows I do, even when I’m not particularly warm and fuzzy, then perhaps i’s important for us to actually say the Lord’s Prayer together as a community of faith, even when it doesn’t "feel" real. Perhaps it’s important for us to speak the words of Scripture to one another in our gatherings, even if we’re tired and cranky and didn’t like that last song. Maybe saying it is important even when we’re not "feeling" it on the inside. Perhaps saying stuff actually does stuff. And maybe doing stuff says stuff.
Yes there’s always the danger that our repeated words could become dead ritualism, but that’s no reason to stop saying the words altogether. Imagine if I told Deb that saying "I love you" was such a special thing, and I was worried that it might become a dead ritual if I said it too much, so I’m just going to reserve it for a once-a-year celebration where I’ll say the words. Ridiculous, of course. But that’s how many people think of liturgy, and of the normative spoken words of worship. Because while there certainly is the danger of dead ritualism, there’s the equal and opposite danger that we will only ever say things we "feel" on the inside, and that would a deep tragedy, for we would never be able to grow beyond our fickle emotions. Feelings are wonderful, but they were never meant to be in charge of things. That’s like giving a toddler the run of the house. No, we needs words that can guide and shape our feelings, and that’s where prepared liturgy helps us so much. The normative spoken words of worship challenge us and prophesy to us, and as we speak them out loud day by day, week by week, year by year, we are formed into the Body of Christ and liberated from only saying what we "feel", and that is a deliverance worth waiting for!
thanks for the link.
my husband has been working on some voice recognition software lately. He had said that he wants me to use it some so he can tweak it’s responsiveness to female voices. I’m looking forward to trying it out.
That sounds fun. Tell him I’ll try it out, too, if he has a version for Mac OS X 😉
I think you are right! I recently bought the “Bible experiebce” – the NIV on mp3 mildly dramatized, and was chocked by how LISTENING TO IT really opened it up in some new ways. I was able to recognize some things that has puzzled me in reading, for instance, Ephesians, as VERBAL signals. It was not to be theologized, it served another purpose that was suddenly clear.
I once heard an actor enact the book of Job, and that really worked! Suddenly the drama in it was so obvious, even the humor!
After that experience, I tried to read the prophets by reading them aloud – I thought that, maybe, they would seem different if proclaimed (as I imagine the prophets would have done it. My wife put a stop to that experiment though, so now we will never know, will we… 😉
Yes, I sometimes wonder about the practicality of using speech recognitions software, especially when babies are taking naps, or in libraries, etc…
I have going through a Celtic prayer book each morning and evening and I have been noticing an increasing urge to read the prayers and Scriptures out loud. There’s just something about it…
interesting thoughts…
actually i tease my wife that everything, even things like hand holding have deminishing returns, which is why she’ll remember the 1st time I held her hand and not the most recent one.
But i like the thoughts in this post a lot, thanks for sharing them.
ben, the application he’s attempting to perfect is for emergency medical use, but i’ll pass the word that you’re interested!
With my sons, I’ve been listening to the audio book version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We’ve all read it, but it’s amazing how different (and more alive) the story seems when someone else reads it out loud. No wonder my kids like it when I read to them, even though they are proficient readers themselves….