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Dorothy L. Sayers, as you have heard me say before, is a remarkable intellect. She has written in every genre except Children’s Stories and is particularly known for her Peter Wimsey detective stories. She may be compared to C.S. Lewis who  wrote no detective stories but did write the Narnia stories. They are an interesting pair. 

One idea that Sayers  covered very carefully was the relationship between words and ideas. Said Sayers, “All words are analogies”. One cannot address anything directly,   and in view of the fact that our vocabularies vary so much language to language and within language person to person, it is a wonder we are able to communicate very well with anyone. All the more reason to be careful about what we say.

There is another reason we need to be careful. In spoken conversation we are face to face with another mind. You know how many thoughts and judgements crowd into your mind when you talk to someone (you should). Well, the same with whomever you are facing. It is not word to word. It is analogy to analogy.

Moreover, being human, we tend to think better of ourselves than we ought to. That is how pride creeps into the scene, and pride further distorts our perceptions. 

What it all adds up to is “Judge not, that you be not judged, for the measure you give will be the measure you get”.  Forget about the speck in your neighbor’s eye. Think about the log in your own eye. Analogies, yes, but good ones.