"Big words, like fat, get stuck in the throat" *

In the beginning it was simply babble, foolish talk and idle chatter among children. Then it turned into babel, a noisy confusion of sounds, voices and languages, because they wanted to make a name for themselves. And then what?

My young friend (24 years old) who has studied the new educational hybrid called "informatics" says he tunes out whenever he hears or sees a quote of the first passage of the gospel according to John: “In the beginning was the Word.” I sympathize without knowing exactly why. Perhaps like him, I dislike fat. What others find fascinating about objects that float, I find deceptive and sometimes even disgusting. And when his ears are not occluded by the plugs that set the rhythm of his swooping arms and circling hands, I tell him so. Sometimes he even calls me on the phone to ask questions, because somewhere the discipline and authority of language still mean something to this young man. I am reminded that "authority" for him is not simply the reputation or recognition that is won among peers (and that can be as misleadng and meaningless as web page 'hits'), but the credibility and value that is associated with wisdom and knowledge.
I explain to him that in the beginning, in this case when the prologue to the gospel according to John was written, it was authored in Greek, and that the word for ‘Word’ was “Logos”. I can see his eyes dart off to Tommy Hilfiger and Lacoste and other successsful brands, and so I repeat what I said, emphasizing the difference in the pronunciation of "Log'os" and "logo´" and the similarity of their roots, their etymology, and the "author'-ity" of language.
I tell him about complexities of the meaning of the word “Logos”, like about how Heraclitus established the term long before John, to imply the fundamental order of the cosmos. He's apparently still with me, and so we continue to talk about collective consciousness and culture, grammar and language, about patterns and frames of reference. I mention the notion of Logos being an expression of a cyclical rather than a linear order, like ecological cycles, capable of warding off scientists and theologians alike. I sense his presence waning. I must be careful not to say too much.
When we hang up, I look up the biblical passages again, and read a bit in my “Literary Guide to the Bible” (ed. Robert Alter et al) and surf to recall the significance which Heraclitus had attached to the term 'Logos'. My memory, my hard disk and RAM, are apparently not as inadequate as I thought. And I am reminded of my gratefulness for the young people in my life.

* Apparently an old saying which I first heard in an avantgarde film called "Red Shift" by Gunvor Nelson.