Authoritative Meaning as Intentional

"I don't know what you mean by "glory,"'Alice said.Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant there's a nice knock-down argument for you! But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,Alice objected. When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less. The question is,' said Alice, `whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.'`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - - that's all."(Lewis Caroll, Through the Looking Glass)


Poor substitutes-
always imprecise,
clumsy symbols
that serve us well.

What would we be without it,
when in it,
through it and around it,
we make our places,
arrange ourselves and others,
look inward, reach out,
find comfort, give comfort,
divide and unite,
and try to make sense.

Feeble as are our attempts are,
some often get carried away.

Mesmerized by our creation,
what fed imagination
can also end up containing it.

An insidious despot without an army,
with authority to proclaim the rules
utters not to include
but to exclude -
passing it off as tradition,
invoking it an act of inclusion.