Words Seem Weak
Posted in From the Heart by R Lee Wrights on May 28th, 2005 by Christy Ann Welty
“The Interpreter” strikes a chord with me. The film’s plot follows a woman who works for the United Nations as an interpreter because she believes in the power of words to save lives.
Having seen enough carnage in civil wars, she does what she can to clarify communications so misinterpretation and confusion don’t multiply struggle and death. Too much is already lost to other factors like ignorance and greed. Faulty communication, she feels, is a factor she can reduce.
Her job as an interpreter is to get the meaning of a message from the speaker of one language to the listener of another. Nuance carries as much weight as pith in interpretation. “If I said ‘dead’ and ‘gone’ were the same I’d be out of a job,” she explained.
I, too, believe words can change lives. I believe words can touch people and help them understand the truths of each other, and I believe that the truth of every person is precious and beautiful, even if hidden or unknown or sadly misunderstood.
The most remarkable thing about this meeting is that the LNC for once failed to do something astoundingly stupid. They came close a couple times, but overall this meeting saw much more forward thinking in the interests of the membership rather than the reactive and insular thinking which had marked previous meetings this term.
