In the Radio lab podcast “Words” they ask the question, are words, or more importantly language, important? They then continue to gather evidence of language and the effects it has on people. For example they talk to an author of the book “A Man Without Words”. She tells them about the incredible story of a twenty-three year old man who was born deaf, and had no understanding of language at all. She talks about his journey to understanding and eventually mastering sign language and the concept of language in general. She says that at first the man would only mimic everything she signed to him and did not understand that everything had a name, however, when he finally grasped that understanding, he was able to open his mind to a whole new understanding and a way of thinking. In this podcast, they were able to uncover that language is not only a way of communicating with others around you, but is a pathway to a different way of cognition. When the man was asked to describe how life was without language, he couldn’t answer. He said he didn’t know because he couldn’t think like that anymore. The sad truth is that from the moment we are born we are instantly introduced to and begin learning language, and because of this we push our more instinct way of thinking to the side. We forget to just experience things for just as they are. Instead we try to label and understand everything in our physical world. Instead of just being able to experience and feel the wind blow against our face, we have to label and classify these things. Language acts as a barrier to our own mindfulness. Now don’t get me wrong, I think language is important, I just think sometimes we forget to  be physically aware instead of being consciously aware.