Aphorisms for beginning multilinguists

105) Reserved

106) To be bilingual is to understand the same thing in two different ways. To be bilingual may be to understand everything that one understands in two different ways.

107) There are thousands of languages multiplied by many thousands of ways to use and understand them. There are therefore thousands of billions of languages and understandings.

108) Language fails us, but the failure of language may lead us to new understandings. The failings of language are the very things that allow us to learn as individuals. The failings of language give us hope that there is more. We haven't even figured out how to communicate; there is much we haven't figured out.

109) As with a multi-linguist, who understands the same thing in different ways, there are ideas that can similarly be understood in a multitude of ways. There are realities and experiences that are described, but that are are not described adequately. There are descriptions written by men of things that are not truly experienced.

110) A man can understand something without living it; a man can live some way without understanding it. A man can understand living without being able to describe it; a man can describe living without being able to understand it.

111) Things aren't as they appear for the genuinely content man. To this man, the passage of time is a massage of his soul. He is able to sit back and enjoy the ride, and he is able to step on the gas and take the wheel at will. Our language isn't adequate to describe this man's life. But that does not matter. Language is merely a diversion. For this man, to ride the flat land, to climb, and to descend are all equally enjoyable. To climb is the most rewarding, to descend is the most fun, to travel on the flat land is to make the most use of the time.