It is a fact, related the Wandering Rabbit, that in this world, the wisest creatures available to inquiry are small and often of a timid inclination.
Young mice, for instance, are taught philosophy and the art of cuisine from a tender age. It is also well known that rabbits invented football, billiards, skiing, bridge, cheese fondue and pasta. Although they rarely eat pasta, preferring succulent grass stalks. Voles excel in the art of embroidery and are proficient at sewing in general. Moles are excellent at mathematics and algebra and the South American Fieldmouse can recite Homer’s The Iliad, verbatim.
So, whenever two or three are gathered together, it is inevitable that there will be discourse and word play.
There were once two and eight small creatures that sat together and looked out across the world.
Creature 1 I was wondering, the other day, if we should consider our language the limit of our world? Or is this a misleading premise?
Creature 2 If you are in need of a freshly minted concept, more suited to framing our understanding of the universe, in which we awake each morning, than our current model. Why, then, I am the small creature you are looking for.
Creature 6 I had oatmeal for breakfast today and it was more than acceptable.
C 8 Personally, I prefer to miss breakfast and have a snack mid-morning. I find that it keeps my energy up until lunch time.
C 1 Language should be our vehicle of discovery, not a prison in which we are trapped.
C 2 I try not to think too much before I have had a cup of coffee.
C 1 I find this language prison very claustrophobic. I had a cup of coffee earlier.
C 2 That’s why you are so keen this morning.
C 6 I don’t always have oatmeal, its just that I had some family staying over and they left some in a bag when they left.
C 8 Toast is nice, with just butter or butter and jam. I recently tried apricot jam for the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised.
C 1 It is important to be accurate with language otherwise we are all at sea. But I would like to be the master of the language that I use, and not the prisoner.
C 2 You think too much. You are quiet C 3, too much to drink last night?
C 3 Yes
C 4 Me too, also couldn’t sleep, C 3 snores like a chain saw.
C 1 Example 1. Say, for argument’s sake, I find a little brown jug, of which I have never seen the like, hovering in a way that I cannot explain. What words shall I use to characterize its motivation?
C2 Example 1 Oh sorry, I thought we were talking language theory. What do you mean you have never seen a little brown jug? I swear that I saw one this morning resting on your kitchen shelf. Anyway, any object could be thought to be hovering. If one froze time during an argument that had got out of hand, and someone, who shall remain nameless, had resorted to violence and thrown the jug across the kitchen. Hovering is in effect flying slowly.
C 1 nodded uncertainly.
Whilst the Wandering Rabbit had been holding forth, the Darkest Knight had awakened and was listening with rapt attention.
That is fascinating, he interjected, I myself have seen several things that I could not name and did not, therefore, understand.
This conversation, young and foolish Knight, Said the Wandering Rabbit, is not about how many things that you do not know the name of. It is about the interaction of intelligent, language using species and the cosmos.
The Sphinx nodded its great head and said, I have often wished that I had a more educated approach to grasping the nebula that is understanding.
Well, said the Rabbit, I’m glad that we had this little chat, but I must be getting on.
The Wandering Rabbit hopped away, whilst the Darkest Knight and the Sphinx remained, puzzled, beneath the tree.
The Guardians of the Cave 