importance of language

Each village has its own "language", even when villages share a common tongue.  When we venture outside our village, we must be open to learning new languages, new ways of speaking, new terms.  Language holds the central key for narrative.   Each language offers us a new path to expression to understanding, to be being human.   Sometimes it is the subtle differences that can throw us off the most.  We are required to undo ourselves, to learn a new language, we have to be immensely familiar with our own.  Even when we leave the village, we have to be acutely aware of what we learned in our village, we have to be willing to accept that it is not common everywhere, we need to be sensitive to the differences of othere village, even when it appears exactly the same.

Sometimes studying other cultures and distant religions appear to yeild more information, we fail to acknowledge what we can learn from the village next door or even our own.  Studying a faith tradition very similar to our own is more difficult than studying distant religions, but can yeild information that is just as meaningful and enlightening.  When we study far different traditions we come into closer accord with our own, when we study similar faith traditions, we challenge our own faith tradition in ways we never would be able to in distant religions.   Study distant religions, but dont' miss the ones that are close by, for they offer the same wealth of information.