wondering what's real

...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'm saying, and they say "yes, i understand," but how do i know they understand? words are inert; they're just symbols; they're dead, you know? and, so much of our experience is intangible... so much of what we perceive cannot be expressed; it's unspeakable. yet, when we communicate with one another, and we feel that we have connected, and we think that we are understood, i think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion, and that feeling might be transient, but i think it's what we live for.

-waking life-