pontificating cheap

a friend of mine is putting togeter a little 4"x4" 8 page publication and in his words, "since i'm the wordy, phD wanna-be, smart one" get to contribute a little piece of thought (eh-hem, "the meat"). here's a copy of my little rambling dribble:

cheap words

Cheap. Cheap seats. Cheap talk. Cheap thrills. Cheap, cheap, cheap. It is the sound a baby chick makes. It is what we label something when it falls apart. It is the word that makes a student's ears jump for joy. But why does the word cheap persist in having such negative connotation? Wouldn't one value a sloppy bundle of handpicked meadow flower randomness over store bought, expensively wrought red, red roses? Isn't a little love note written on a sliver of a paper corner more treasured than a computer typed, laser printed copy that can be recreated over and over by the mere push of a button?

Take these notions in hand for a moment and cross the boundaries into the realm of architecture. Cheap means budget conscious. It connotes other ideas of pre-fab and sustainability. Images of small habitable box houses come to mind. But it also means that after ten years stucco is falling off the side of walls, the roofs are beginning to leak, floorboards starting to creak. It means imitation and disintegration. At what point did the words quality and cheap become so far removed from one another? How can that discrepancy be reconciled?

Realizing the importance words have in the telling of our narratives is essential. The drawings we create, the buildings we make, the ideas we realize, it all begins with words. "Language is not merely a means of expression and communication; it is an instrument of experiencing, thinking, and feeling ... Our ideas and experiences are not independent of language; they are all integral parts of the same pattern, the warp and woof of the same texture. We do not first have thoughts, ideas, feelings, and then put them into a verbal framework. We think in words, by means of words. Language and experience are inextricably interwoven, and the awareness of one awakens the other." [1]

Cheapness and beauty must somehow find themselves back in the same sentence. [2]
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[1] William Chomsky, dad to Noam Chomsky (creator of generative grammar)…ooooo….aaaaahhh.
[2] If Boy George could do it in 1995 with his album Cheapness & Beauty, so can you!