nothing is something

if we gave a word to something, then that something must exist. nothing has a word, therefore, nothing is something.

if we give nothing a word, then we have given a word to nothing. if nothing has words, then nothing is something.

but things that have words need not exist. or do they? what does it mean "exist"? Does love exist? love is too complicated to be able to give certain criterion which are met if and only if one is in the presence of love. is the existance real but not tangible? that is, is the existance of the thing we denote as love real but not describable in any more concrete a way as to use the word "love"? of course love exists! how could i be talking about something that doesn't exist!? but it is up to romantics and lovers to determine the properties of love, and up to poets and storytellers to describe it to the rest of us. This reminds me of a quote

Begin at the beginning, Master Li told me. Proceed through the middle, continue to the end, and then stop. That is what I shall do, and then, perhaps, a kind reader will write and explain it to me. -Barry Hughart