The First Word

I just read The Names, a memoir by N. Scott Momaday. A literary author, Momaday's memoir is non-linear, and more poetry than narrative. I enjoyed this quote in particular:

"The first word gives origin to the second, the first and second to the third, the first, second, and third to the fourth, and so on. You cannot begin with the second word and tell the story, for the telling of the story is a cummulative process, a chain of becoming, at last of being."