speaking just now to myself, “dumb” is not in itself anything. it’s either limited capacity, or silence, or the submerged, depending on what’s being gestured at. with language being an elaboration on feeling, if the underlying feeling isn’t there, language essentially becomes a sifting tool and the feeling or concept being searched for the gold.
ultimately, it’s about precision vs. hue. the word’s meaning and association, and how the two can mutually complicate each other. you want to use tight, simple words to create a net, but as the embellishments (recollections, colors, polysyllables) likewise reveal structure and content, they must remain in place, even in places where the net remains closer to an ornamental rug.
you can cup your hands into a water bowl, but you can’t twist your fingers into champagne flutes.
the tension is in using words the other person can understand without fundamentally changing the meaning, but realistically… sometimes you need to just tell a person one story til they’re ready to hear another, cause sometimes a lie is only a trainer buttplug for a much grandier truth.