The following is my response to Question 3.

I don’t believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. I have never believed that, to be frank. While it is a charming concept, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ doesn’t take into account the past, the future or even the present of what is happening in a photo. For example, a photo of one of Canada’s umpteen majestic landscapes, no matter how spellbinding it may be, will never be able to project to the beholder of the photo how the air smelled, or how the wind sounded as it rushed through the evergreens. Only words can do that.

I believe that words draw us closer to the world we live in because we, as humans, are curious creatures. We are constantly searching for new ways to connect, both with each other and with the world we live in.

In one of my favourite literary works, Walden, author Henry David Thoreau explores this idea, when he sets up a home for himself in the middle of the wilderness, and immerses himself in nature and in solitude for over two years. The following excerpt from Walden is emblematic of Thoreau’s experience in the wild, and to me, it demonstrates the unique insight into Walden’s surroundings that only words could have brought. He states, ‘In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantage of human neighborhood insignificant’ (99). The connection Thoreau is feeling to nature in the above passage is clear; it is a very special thing, I find, that Thoreau was able to find and use the exact words he thought would fit the situation best in order to relay to his readers how close he was feeling to the Earth. I believe that words are the only thing that allow us to be bound together as humans, humans who all live such singular and separate lives but are inherently connected by our connections to the lands we inhabit.

I was excited to find that J. Edward Chamberlin, too, references Thoreau in If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?. Chamberlin speaks of what Thoreau calls ‘extravagance’, ‘…the quality that counteracts what Thoreau called a life of quiet desperation; that takes us beyond the true and the untrue, the useful and the useless; and that keeps us safe and sane by celebrating the unsafe and the things that defy common sense’ (Chamberlin 156). I believe that this is the true essence of what words (and, in turn, stories) are meant to do; they reach beyond just being ink on pages (or mere sounds, in the case of oral stories) and unite humankind in the knowledge that we are all here, we are all in the same world, watching the sun as it rises, feeling the first drops of rain.

I would like to close with a quote once again; this one comes from spiritual leader Yehuda Berg. ‘Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.’ This quote reinforces my belief that words are truly the essential key to connecting ourselves to those we know and to those we do not; to the living and to the dead, to sharing stories about the world around us.

Works Cited:

Thoreau, Henry D. “Thoreau’s Walden – an Annotated Edition.” Thoreau Reader. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

“Henry David Thoreau Biography.” Bio. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

“PROF. J.E. CHAMBERLIN.” Victoria College | University of Toronto. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

“Yehuda Berg.” Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

“Yehuda Berg Quotes.” BrainyQuote. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.