The Story That Learned to Think: II. The Speaker

After the first sound, there were more.

The world had not changed.

The river still moved through the valley.

The tree still grew beside it.

The bird still crossed the sky.

But now the things of the world could be distinguished.

And then the sounds began to return.

They came from somewhere.

At first no one noticed.

Then the world noticed that the sounds were not like the sounds of wind or water. They did not merely happen.

They were said.

And because they were said, someone must have been saying them.

So the world began to search for the one who spoke.

It searched among the trees.

It searched beside the river.

It searched beneath the open sky.

But the Speaker was nowhere to be found.

The Speaker had no place in the world, because the Speaker was not yet one of the things the world could name.

Still, the voice continued.

It spoke of the light.

It spoke of the darkness.

It spoke of the waters.

It spoke of the living things.

And as it spoke, the differences between them became clearer.

The world began to take shape in the saying.

Then the Speaker said something about the Speaker.

And for the first time, the world contained not only something that could be said, but someone who could say it.

The voice had become a presence.

But the Speaker remained unseen.