Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Non-Discursive Experience (more on...)

 

                                                                  (Kitty Hawk, NC)

In his book Beyond Words, Frederick Buechner writes:

"I have called the collection Beyond Words because in one way or another all the words it contains point to the realm of mystery and depth that lies beyond our ordinary experience and thus could be called beyond-words. To say something is beyond words is also to say that it is beyond the power of even beyond-words to convey adequately. Beethoven’s last string quartets, falling in love, the death of a friend—how can we possibly describe such things other than to say that they are ultimately indescribable? You can know them only by experiencing them for yourself."

(For my take on "beyond-words," see my post "Non-Discursive Experiences of God.")