"The present is distraction; the future a dream; only memory can unlock the meaning of life. Aren't those beautiful words?

Truly exquisite words, but a foolish lie.

No -- memory unlocks no meanings. Without anguish of the spirit, which is a wordless experience, there are no meanings anywhere."

There are some who respond with their own understanding to the thoughts I express upon the ether.  And some have challenged me on my liberal use of quotes from science fiction writers and other writers of fiction.  Somehow I lose credibility if I do not quote accepted and acceptable "sources" to validate some of my own thoughts or create an easier path for them to walk on. 
 
I say this because the above quote is still from the book "God Emperor of Dune" by Frank Herbert.  And I think that is amazing insight.  What does it matter the vehicle a writer/philosopher uses to share ideas with as many as possible?  I can't be the only one who sees life differently after reading Herbert, Tolkien, Orwell, Bear, Simmons, Asimov, Modesitt and a host of others who had ideas and expressed them through the use of fiction. 
 
Suffice that they are writers who excel at their craft and express ideas not found in the common swamp of pseudo history, religion, science and pop psychology.
 
I have said many times that words are the cheapest commodity on this planet.  That may be true far beyond earth as well.  But if words are so "cheap" how do we remember; how do we think; how do we create without them?
 
Such a process was once normal.  Earthians evolved mentally by leaps and bounds.  Many thousands of years ago we find our ancestors in complete harmony of thought building what legend brought down to us as something as ridiculous as "a tower that will reach the heavens."   Yes at that time Earthian humans had one common "language" which wasn't words at all but telepathic communication.  They could "remember" without flaw and could emulate whatever they had observed their "gods" doing.
 
The tower in question we now know was a launching pad for rockets bound for space beyond this solar system.  The goal was to launch shuttles into space and find the creators and confront them for leaving us on earth after they appeared to have left.  The Earthians were not ready to accept that earth was to be their final abode and place of death.  They knew the Nibiruans (the gods) did not die or at least they had never seen one die.  And they would force their creators to give them this gift of longevity.  That was the simple plan.
 
The gods got wind of this and were afraid.  What if the Earthians succeeded?  They had all the necessary technical information in their minds and could share it freely among all.  They operated as a hive unit.  Indeed, nothing they put their minds to would be denied them.  So the gods concocted a great evil with which they afflicted all of mankind: they robbed them of their ability to share thoughts.  And so the Earthians who had only used sounds to sing or communicate with animals and sea creatures now had to develop languages to express their most basic needs.  From there came a great downfall, a loss of understanding and endless scatterings "over the face of the whole earth".  And endless wars.  
 
Words do not convey meaning.  They provide a very crude framework upon which meanings may be expressed but ultimately it is the mind looking through the symbol of language that decides what the meaning is.  There will never be any agreement that way.  I remember the old joke: there are three sides to every story: yours, mine and the facts.  But what are facts if they have not been experienced?  To look for facts through verbal reports is a complete waste of mental energy.
 
A child raises his arm to me.  The hand is not there - it was blown away by a land-mine.  I can feel a  wrenching in my guts but I cannot know what that child is feeling unless I lose my own hand in the exact way.  Or unless I am a total empath.  Then I can know in the anguish of spirit and I can see by the Golden Path all the threads that led that child to trip the mine; that created the mine; all the wherefores and all the why's are laid bare - to infinity!  That place needs no words but is best entered through compassion if one would survive it.