Babel

[And the Lord said,] “Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” – Genesis 11:7 (NRSV) 

Once upon a time, the people all spoke the same language. The leaders assured them this was good. We use good grammar to be sure we speak precisely, they said. We pronounce words correctly to avoid confusion, they said. We do not innovate lightly. And just look at this tower we’re building because of it! 

But. 

The technicians longed for new words for new discoveries. And the lovers longed for secret nicknames that nobody else knew. And the poets longed to play with word order and spelling and punctuation, and the experimentalists longed for nonce words, and the songwriters longed to break rules so their songs would scan. 

The theologians wanted more words for God. The sexual minorities needed code words for recognizing each other. The abused had no way to communicate without their abusers understanding. And the kids! Oh, how the kids longed for language of their own that would piss their parents right off. 

The leaders and their grammar police assured them, in the most elevated prose, that none of this was a good idea. 

But God heard the cries of the people and gave them what they asked for. Declared that language was made for humans, not humans for language. And suddenly the people had all the words they needed, all the usages they could come up with, all the dialects, cants, idioms, argots, patois they could imagine. And the babble was a wonder and a glory.  

The only ones who were truly confused were the parents, the pedants, and the potentates. And God saw that indeed, it was very good. 

Prayer
For language that both communicates and confounds: thank you. Amen.

About the Author
Quinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.