“If you could change any word into another, which would it be and what would you change it to?”
"It is funny you should say that, it relates to something I was thinking about as you were talking. Three words keep repeating themselves in my head: would, could, should. After a firm attempt to ignore the loop I've decided to resolve the issue, which is a form of silencing. I'm not the first to observe, as I'm sure you are well aware, that the words 'could', 'would', and 'should', rhyme and work as similar tools and, therefore, must be connected. And I have tried often to connect them. I have tried to construct a well-built theory and fit the idea of the words inside. But, I'm afraid, it is rather like shoving a man much larger than myself in through a window. The trick is, and one day I will discover its secret, to convince the idea, through kind words, to go around and walk in the front door of the theory; as any man of grace should, as I'm sure God intended."
"You are trying to say too much at once. It’s difficult to understand, and what’s more, I think you might be insane.”
"Aha! I cannot disagree but only ask what caused you to say so."
"Well, it’s difficult to express. It isn't that you are saying something senseless, for if you were then I would know you as a fool and not a loon. Rather it is that what you say makes its own sense. Your sense is not like any I have ever known, which makes me wonder why I recognize it so familiarly. You are intelligent but do not reason in the same way I often do, so you must be insane."
"I have always suspected this of being true and I see that you are like me, not allowing the evil of connotations to bend the tracks on your train of thought. It seems, as you say, that I am often to be found on a path that only exists behind me and leads me only where I am going, for I am the first to walk it. But often the trouble comes when I arrive and the crowd asks me how I got there, at which point it is indescribable."
"This is why you cannot be understood. Do you always speak in elaborate metaphors?"
"I must. Ideas are like bars of gold in that they are totally worthless. The values of gold and ideas are inherent and reliant on nothing. However, one cannot buy their daily bread with bars of gold because the grocer will scorn you for attempting to swindle him. In order to get anything done, one must have a bill in hand that is, itself, totally worthless but represents the wealth of a gold bar. So metaphors, though they only represent the true golden wealth of an idea, are necessary if we are ever to make an efficient exchange."
"So should we all speak in metaphor, according to you?"
"Your question is meaningless, because we couldn't do anything else if we tried. The better question would be, in my far from humble opinion: if you could speak without the bills and only trade gold, would you even want to?"
"Does preference enter the equation?"
"It must, otherwise the whole situation is moot. Because if we only concentrate on what would be best for us, then we are only concentrating on the word 'should'."
"The implications of that word should seem heavier than ‘would’ or ‘could’."
"The word itself is only representation, so do not give it too much weight. But remember how it sits beside its brothers: what should you do? what would you do? what could you do? Do you understand how it all, sooner or later, becomes the same thing?"
"But if it is the same thing, then there couldn't be any such thing as gold."
"You shouldn't say that, it limits where you could go next."
