Expression – It is a strange word to consider, as the very word in itself means hundreds of things depending upon the medium. (Genre – General, Rating – PG)
Expression.
It is a strange word to consider, as the very word in itself means hundreds of things depending upon the medium. A face can wear an expression, music can express feelings, and words can convey an expression.
Each one is different from the other. The face that wears an expression can be telling a multitude of feelings behind the bent skin and muscles. It can tell a tale of sadness, of happiness, of lost love or fear for the future. It can tell nothing to some people and a million things to another person. A face’s expression depends upon the person giving it, what mood they are in or the way they stand. Do they stand tall, do they slump their back? Do they look to the floor, to the sides, to the heavens as if muttering an unanswered prayer?
Music can express feelings. It can whisper emotions to the listener, make them feel emotions that connect on a deeper level. It can have words, it can just be a mere tune that is different because it has rhythm or patterns in it. Music can be loud and bold, it can tell a tale of triumph and power in a few chords. And yet those chords can tell a different story if they are given to another instrument, if they are played by a musician who is trying to tell their own story through that same music, if they are given a different cadence or timing. Music can evoke feelings, it can connect people in a hundred different ways, it makes people listen to the same tune for a hundred different reasons. It becomes personal, it makes the person feel they are listened to.
They are understood.
Words tell a different type of expression. They are constrained by the meaning that humans impart upon certain sounds, to convey an idea you need the right words to say it in. Different languages are like different rooms that one cannot access if one does not know how to interpret a certain sound and make it into a meaning. One expression in one language would be meaningless in another language. It is fluid, dynamic, like water flowing down from a mountain, words can take a hundred different routes to explain the same idea. And each time that idea is spoken aloud, it takes a different meaning depending on the teller. Is the teller sad, are they excited or angry? Do they look to the floor or to the side when they speak the words? Do they stand tall or short? Do they listen to music, and remember a feeling that they could not express in mere words but they can understand within a tune. Maybe they cry, maybe they sit and absorb the understanding that their feelings are not limited to their experiences.
Expression is unique. It is individual. It depends on the human, the musician, the writer to convey different meanings across different mediums.
But still, expression is a place of learning. It is a place where someone can possess their own ideas and shout them to the world.
Alex.J.Cobalt 