I think it’s interesting that when people talk about a thing, they can mean two different things. Or five different things.
Like the word attraction.
I can think of at least 10 different ways I can be attracted to someone. Do they have a pleasing energy or personality or a smile? Are they physically attractive to me personally or are they physically attractive in general but I myself am not attracted to them? Are they spiritually attractive, intellectually attractive? Do they have that sort of energy that is both physical and something else where they are just perfect for some cuddling? Are they chemically attractive (as in for some reasons our chemicals are going insane and two people who otherwise would feel no attraction are, when within a certain radius of each other, intensely attracted to each other)? Romantically attractive? And then as a fling or as a steady partner?
For some people, all they think about is if they find someone aesthetically pleasing and/or find that they are aroused to some degree by their aesthetics.
Or sexuality. Most of the people I have talked to in person speak of it/define it as desire. Whether it be solely physically (cause bodies can be very persistent) or emotionally (the emotional connections and benefits – when sex is done in a healthy, positive way – ) or a mixture.
Then there is the internet where it is attraction. But, with so many definitions of attraction that have to deal with physical/sexual attraction even that part is messy. A lot of people would define personal physical attraction as sexual attraction. But there are other people who wouldn’t.
It’s all perspective and personal experience.
Like when I say Asian. Or Hispanic or Indian or South American. Most people think I am speaking about a race (meaning a group of people with aesthetics specific to them) when I, usually, mean a culture. There is a slight difference there.
Then there is the fact that describing words have taken on a derogatory sense. I am thinking specifically of fat and black. Fat used to just be a word, one that actually had pleasant connotations, such as wealth and a good food supply. Now, people flinch at the word fat, even in the noun form. Then what is fat, the adjective, anyway? Some people have said that I am fat; some have gone even so far as to say I am obese, when, as far as I am concerned, I am neither. I have fat but I am not fat and I don’t have that much fat, but it’s still there enough to not be skinny. Then there is the medical definition of fat and overweight and the general definition. My sister is insanely fit. She has maybe one pound of fat on her body. Yet when she went to the doctor’s, they told her she needed to lose twenty pounds. Twenty pounds that would have meant either 1. she lost all muscle or 2. she became anorexic to the scary about to die degree. But all this is from the same word – fat, in case you haven’t been paying attention – and that’s just crazy. And black is a term many people find offensive because of the history around it and the prejudices there, but at the same time as a descriptive word, it is useful.
Christian is a weird word that somehow has come to mean everything. I have been told by some people that Islam and Judaism both fall under the Christian category because they all deal with the same god. But do they? And if they did, wouldn’t they all fall under Judaism because Christianity came after Judaism and Elohim YHWH, not Yeshua, would be the binding force? Even with Islam not falling under the Christian category (it really shouldn’t, by the way. I’m not sure when people started grouping them together or why but it makes no sense), anyone who has studied religion should be able to agree that Christianity would fall under Judaism (kinda. It was supposed to then it got all messed up). To some people, anyone who believes in God – one supreme being who created the world even if it doesn’t go much beyond that – is a Christian. So even saying that something is Christian or asking if someone is a Christian might mean something entirely different than you might think.
Some people say religion and mean something hollow, without soul while others see religion as something filled with soul and heart.
Love is a word with so many different meanings that by saying we love someone, we can unwittingly deceive them. Because while one person means love in a forever way someone else may mean it in an I love cheese way. And those are two very different ways. Well, unless someone practically worships cheese. There is conditional love and unconditional love. There is love that doesn’t promise forever because it might not be, it probably won’t be, while there is love that will never fade. And when people throw around the word love all the time, someone is going to mean it in a greater way or a lesser way and people are going to get hurt.
I could go on and on about words that have multiple meanings and there is no way to know except to sit the person down and say “explain your definition of this word, what experiences lie behind it so that I don’t get confused.” Unfortunately, we can’t do that most of the time. And we can’t realize how other people are interpreting our words and chase after them saying “Wait! These were my intentions! This is what I meant!” Even if we could, there might still be biases there and prejudices like attitude and situation that taint what you are saying.
Words are messy. They are dangerous. At least English words, where nothing is definite in its meaning and rarely is there an exactness to anything. Every time that we open our mouths, we risk unintentionally misleading someone, often resulting in hurt. Sometimes I think it is better to keep my mouth shut, to not say anything. Then I can’t be misinterpreted. Then I won’t hurt people by my words meaning something else to them. But I can’t really live like that. So in a language without exactness, with everything open to personal perspective and people rarely asking about the original intentions/perspective/meaning, the only thing to do is to be aware of what we are saying and try our best to make our intention and definition as clear as possible; to understand that we will be misunderstood, that people will take something away from our words that we do not mean.
~Kiartha Qwon’um
Autumn Unleashed 
