Thomas Kinkade Sweetheart Cottage II painting

Thomas Kinkade Sweetheart Cottage II paintingThomas Kinkade Sunrise Chapel paintingThomas Kinkade Sunday at Apple Hill painting
imagine that starfish don't think about alternatives, like left or right, forward or back; they'd think in terms of five kinds of lefts and rights, five kinds of backs and forths. Or twenty kinds of lefts and rights, twenty kinds of backs and forths. The only either)or for a starfish would be up and down. The other dimensions or directions or choices would be either)or)or)or)or...
Well, that describes one aspect of their language. When you say something in Nna Mmoy, there is a center to what you say, but the statement goes in more than one direction from the center—or to the center.
In Japanese, I'm told, a slight modification in one word or reference changes a sentence entirely, so that—I don't know Japanese, I'm making this up—if a syllable changes in one word, then "the crickets are singing in chorus in the starlight" becomes "the taxicabs are in gridlock at the intersection." I gather that Japanese poetry uses these almost-double meanings deliberately. A line of poetry can