words when pictures don't suffice . . .

Here is a great article on Higgs boson.

The Higgs field is like rain, and there is no place you can go to keep dry. Just like there’s no way to shield yourself from gravitation, there’s no way to hide from the rain that is the Higgs field. If there were no Higgs field, all the fundamental particles would be like dried-out sponges. Massless, dried-out sponges.