Understood

"But what I think is really interesting is how we use the same symbols to communicate the abstract, intangible things that we’re experiencing. Like, what is frustration? Or what is anger, or love? When I say ‘love’, the sound comes out of my mouth and hits the other person’s ear, travels through this byzantine conduit in their brain, through their memories of love—or lack of love—and they register what I am saying and they say yes, they understand. But how do I know they understand? Because words are inert. They’re just symbols. They’re dead. And so much of our experience is intangible. So much of what we perceive can not be expressed; it’s unspeakable. And yet, when we communicate with one another, and we feel that we have connected and we think we’re understood, I think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion. And I think that feeling might be transceived, but I think it’s what we live for.”