Conversation and ideas.
There are people who have soul and you can see it in their eyes. When I say soul here, I mean that spark of creativity and original thought. It is what makes one unique; the soul. The issue is, their soul is flaming in their eyes while their mouth stays mute; they have thoughts on life, or a topic of some sort yet they are unable to express themselves. The ideas and thoughts just smolder, never getting farther than their eyes, and in moments those ideas flicker away.
How does one get better at expressing their original or unorthodox thoughts? I used to think it came with age. That as you gained experience in life (years you have lived) you naturally develop the skill to give some voice to your thoughts in an intelligent manner. I don’t believe that to be true any longer.
If you are not careful, you will fall back to the comfortable territory of common sense, and reduce your ideas to washed out cliche and metaphor. That is why most people, as they get older, begin to agree with the notion that, “There is nothing new under the sun”. They take their ideas, those random flutters of creativity, and find the common sense saying or proverb that sort of fits it. They force their ideas into these ill-fitting molds. When they look back they just see rhetoric, and their desire for original thought fades, and the soul in their eyes dies out. They are now just husk bodies for society; that lowest common denominator of intelligence.
So if age and experience don’t bring about the ability to connect the souls ideas into an informative dialogue, then what will? The answer, I think, lies in practice. The beginning attempts to do so will be stuttering and clumsy, but take heart in those brief moments of insight, where for an instant your soul has a direct link with your audience. My thoughts on philosophy and other ideas still come out of my mouth full of uncertainty and confusion. Though I try to explain myself, I don’t always make sense, but I am working on becoming better at it. But those brief glimmers of clarity give me the motivation to keep trying.