Take a book off the shelf, and open it to the dedication. It’s normally something simple like “For my wife” or “For my father”.

It is appropriate that a book should start with a dedication like this, because it is likely the most succinct in the whole book - the most meaning condensed in the fewest words, even though the full extent of the meaning is hidden to everyone except the author.

Even so, reading a phrase like this we can begin to guess at the depth of meaning, its feeling, its smell and touch. The potency of the dedication might well be worth writing a whole book in order to approximate it.

Perhaps the things we see around us also have a similar profundity of meaning. If you take a personal object and recall all the sensory experiences associated, to where will you be transported? How much might it mean?

For the transcript: Shades of Meaning A Beautiful Thought