Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Everything You Say

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

February 10, 2016


This essay, Everything You Say, is the companion piece to It is also the eighteenth in an open group on Language:
  1. Last Word
  2. Speaking Of Freedom
  3. The Transformation Of The World
  4. Constituted In Language
  5. Zen Bland
  6. Source Of Zen Bland: Hand Grasps Itself?
  7. Linguistic Acts
  8. Language: The Scalpel Of Experience
  9. Wordsmith
  10. Source Quote
  11. Being And Acting Out-Here: Presence Of Self Revisited
  12. My Word In The Matter
  13. You Are What You Speak
  14. Residue Of Meaning
  15. The Effortless Breakthrough
  16. The World's Conversation
  17. Read To Us
  18. Everything You Say
  19. Breakfast With The Master IV: Language As Music
  20. Leading With My Word
  21. Language And Results
  22. No, It's What You Say  About It
  23. Located Inside Language
  24. Be A Good Day
  25. Words Are Like Numbers
  26. Law In The Universe II: An Inquiry Into Inquiring
in that order.


I want you to imagine you have direct access  to the entire collection of records of everything you've said. By that I mean I want you to imagine you have hands-on admittance to the complete registry of every single word you've ever uttered in every single conversation you've ever had - in other words, the complete collection of records in minutely accurate detail  of every single expression that's ever come out of your mouth. These records include the exact time and date of when you said what you said, photographs and a photographically perfect description of the exact location you were in when you said it, full photographic proof of who else was present with you when you said what you said (naturally there's also a concordance showing their names and your relationships with each of them), and of course the exact verbatim word for word  transcript of everything you said, a transcript which is unambiguously clear  and meticulously constructed ie methodically laid out. Oh! and in addition, this transcript also has a crystal clear audio soundtrack, as well as high-resolution video captures to support it.

We're not done yet (what I've got in mind is something even more comprehensive than that): when I say records of "everything you've said" (past tense), I'm also including everything you say  (present tense) and everything you will  say in the future. Interimly I'm also including everything others have said to you, everything others say to you, and everything others will say to you, and I'm also including everything you've  said, say, and will say to yourself. Ultimately I'm including everything others have said to others, everything others say to others, and everything others will say to others. So when I refer to records of "everything you've said" I'm really implying the entire spectrum of all  conversations throughout all of human history - past, present, and future.

Now watch: appreciated or not, intended or not, understood  or not, regretted or not, avoidable or not, realized at the time  or not, I assert the interim collection of everything you've said, everything you say, everything you will say, and everything others have said to you, everything others say to you, and everything others will  say to you, is who you really are, or at least it's who others take you to be, and that the ultimate collection of (effectively) everything everyone has said to everyone, everything everyone says to everyone, and everything everyone will say to everyone, is who we  really are as humanity, or at least it's who we take ourselves to be.

You have no control over having thoughts - and if you deny it or dismiss this claim as preposterous, then right now, stop having thoughts  (you can't, can you?). You have no control over having feelings and emotions. They come and they go like the weather. If you don't like what you're feeling right now, wait a while: it'll pass. You have no control over your bodily functions. And the truth about our circumstances is we have almost no control over them either - and if you deny it or dismiss this claim as preposterous, then there are some families with children in Syria I'd like you to meet. About the only thing you have any control over at all, is what comes out of your mouth  - which is everything you say ie your language ie your word. Who we are and who you are is literally everything you say, have said, and will say.

There's another related assertion: "Who you are is the space in which the events of your life occur" ie that who you are is the context  in which the events of your life occur. How does this one jive with "Who you are is everything you say"? It's both: who you are is the context in which the events of your life occur, and  who you are is also everything you say (who you are is the context in which who you are as everything you say, occurs). You can't control who you are as the context in which the events of your life occur. You do have control over what comes out of your mouth ie over everything you say ie over your language ie over your word. There's power in distinguishing who you are as everything you say, differentiating it from who you are as the context in which the events of your life (and everything you say) occur.


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