"So
many words get lost. They leave the mouth and lose their courage, wandering
aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days
you can hear their chorus rushing past. IwasabeautifulgirlPleasedontgoItoobelievemybodyismadeofglassIvenever-
lovedanyoneIthinkof
myselfasfunnyForgiveme...
There
was a time when it wasn't uncommon to use a piece of string to guide words that
otherwise might falter on the way to their destinations. Shy people carried a
little bundle of string in their pockets, but people considered loudmouths had
no less need for it, since those used to being overheard by everyone were often
at a loss for how to make themselves heard by someone. The physical distance
between two people using a string was often small; sometimes the smaller the
distance, the greater the need for the string.
The
practice of attaching cups to the ends of the string came much later. Some say
it is related to the irrepressible urge to press shells to our ears, to hear
the still-surviving echo of the world's first expression. Others say it was
started by a man who held the end of a string that was unraveled across the
ocean by a girl who left for America
When
the world grew bigger, and there wasn't enough string to keep the things people
wanted to say from disappearing into the vastness, the telephone was invented.
Sometimes
no length of string is long enough to say the thing that needs to be said. In
such cases, all the string can do, in whatever its form, is conduct a person's
silence."
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