Like we do, words can also mean something else if they are surrounded by other companions. It is far from polite to say everything you want in someone’s face. I can’t imagine a society, now or in the past, where that would be appropriate. You don’t tell your new boss that he’s a lying peace of… you wait with that till your home, with another companion, or when your quit or know and respect each other. Strangers might curse at each other, but a stranger with who you have to build a relation should not be told the (your) truth when you just met. We all know this truth, or call it “normal behavior”, even if we don’t follow it or have some kind of (mild) sociopathic behavior.

So what we say depends on where and with who we are. If you follow the ideas of Darwin and his evolution theory, you can imagine that a person that constantly tells what he thinks of others will quickly be thrown out of the group, and thus has a hard time procreating. Its a little simple the way I tell it but our social behavior has a link with our success in evolving. Some behaviors are more attractive and beneficial than others. Can you imagine that the strongest male still would mate exclusively with all the females in the group, that behavior died off early in our evolution, though its echo might still be seen in some of us.

With our words and where they are, or how they are interpreted, we have an easier time understanding the rules though there might still be some evolution involved.

In the poem that I chose for today (Day 893) I used a word you can read in different ways and so change the interpretation of the poem.

Remains after fall

a relic of dignity

prosaic delight.

The picture that accompanied this haiku can probably be guessed. When its fall (autumn is the more formal name for this part of the year) the majestic flower slowly dies and that can make you reminisce about summer. But we can also reminisce about our, or someone else’s fall. Like falling from grace or favor. Your dignity can be bruised after you “fall from your high horse” and many will take delight in that.

Words are funny, I looked up the word fall and there are many ways you can interpret and use this word, maybe the word fall is THE equivalent for the word human.