This book is not for everyone. For many, words work fine most all the time. Then again, everyone's brain is not the same. For example, some followers of Elizabeth Meyers Briggs' Gifts Differing say that 38% of us predicate our actions on a logic that uses words shared by most, while 12% act directly on perceptions shared by few. Needless to say, the latter 12% will find words falling short more often, as they retrofit them so as to apply after the fact.
Even if simple words guide your life, not all words will work for you equally well. That's why a careless or self-serving choice of questions to ask by "the media" can have profound, and sometimes negative, effects.
Some situations, like the slow death of a loved one at home from cancer, are beyond words altogether. That's because it is not always about ideas. Sometimes, it's about one-of-a-kind organisms, for whom words are a pale shadow at best.
To be posted electronically about updates to
these "notes on a book",
send an e-mail with the subject "when words fail" to
the author: pfraundorf@umsl.edu.