The Art of Conversation

Speech and words as tools of connection.

By Delphin Enjolras (French; 1857 - 1945)

“Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”
- Proverbs 16:24

Verbal language and the use of words is a quality (at least as far as we know) unique to human beings. That human, similarly to God, could use the Word or the Sound, also meant that human being is not a mere passive recipient of cosmic forces, but also an active agent. Words and speech are on even a mundane level, creative agents — when we utter and say something, our physical reality immediately responds to what we say. People recognise us, hear us, and we engage in hundreds of such transactions just in a single day. Similarly, with words we express our feelings or commonly say our oaths — the fact that wedding oaths, military oaths or any other oath must be spoken loudly and while standing, indicates that we still assume that saying something out loud is what makes the intent real. “I proclaim you husband and wife.”, says the priest as the bond is made official before the world, together with all the promises made and oaths taken.

Conversation as such, used to be one of the pleasures — there is a liquid quality to it, and for those who know how to do it, it begins to move the “juices within.” Sometimes it has elements of play — to be subtle, to suggest, to say by not saying, to say while “speaking in a shadow language” and so establish a unique intimacy when someone understands the shadow language you speak in.