Expressions of Admiration

The simplest, but false, theory is that when we find something admirable, we say it is. This is false because we don't always say what we think, and because it's clearly laborious to always be saying what we think. An alternative is that we only talk about it when what we think is very important to us. This applies not to placid observations, such as the fact that a cat is in the woods, but to strong emotions, such as the fear we feel or the joy we experience because a particular cat is in the woods.

Even so, the alternative to the false theory is also false. We don't always say we're afraid when we're afraid, or even show it. As children, we were advised not to talk about what's on our minds in front of cats, dogs, or adults. Sometimes the phrases we have left over, perhaps due to lack of practice, turn all things terrible and admirable into a source of placid observations; and because nothing amazes us, we end up not being able to admire anything.

A third theory is that when we show admiration for anything, we preferably do so not through phrases and statements but through shorter words, namely, interjections and adjectives. 'Wow!' and 'Sublime!' require little thought, neither before nor after. They seem to be worth a thousand sentences and emerge spontaneously from things we feel. Justifying their use seems superfluous: the vibrations between the fourth and fifth ribs speak for themselves. Words like 'Sublime!' and 'Wow!' are a holy remedy; we admire, it is admired: there is nothing more to say.

However, the discussions we seek to avoid may very well be better ways of doing justice to what we admire. Often, feeling admiration is not enough; or rather, what we call our feelings of admiration already includes complete sentences: disagreements, explanations, or praise. Compared to these, adjectives and interjections are chocolate medals. The ingenuity required to form these sentences is not only a tribute that vice pays to virtue; it is the risk of future trouble that we run in order to participate in the gala of homage to what we admire.

But there are even riskier expressions of admiration: for example, remaining silent. This is not the silence of someone who doesn't know what to say, or who can't form complete sentences adequate to their admiration; but rather the silence of someone who, despite having common verbal skills, tells themselves, like the Queen of France, 'admire and be silent;' someone who, in short, believes that saying nothing is a way of doing justice. This method is risky because the most taciturn righteous can be confused with their behavioral counterparts: the ignorant and the sulky. Nevertheless, it continues to be used by those who sense that justice requires a certain reticence.