Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Words Will Never Hurt Me.
A childhood phrase that everyone knows.
Words.
If only words didn't hurt us. Unfortunately, we all know words can hurt us very deeply. Words can lift us up and make us fly or beat us down and destroy our soul. They can even kill.
As a writer, I know words evoke certain feelings and images depending on how they are written. The written word leaves feelings that stay with us long after the story has been read. We think about them, ponder for days on what they truly mean.
Songwriters, politicians, clergyman, policemen, teachers, doctors. Their words when spoken have meaning to us. Family, friends, mentors, they all elicit feelings from their words as well. Helpful, hurtful, engaging, disenfranchising. Pick one or more. Emotions balance heavily on their scales depending on a well chosen word.
Words can be very powerful and inspiring. Or they can leave us with thought provoking mysteries that can only be reconciled within ourselves.
Yesterday, I attended a funeral for a great man who was killed as a result of words. The exact words that prompted his fine, learned young son to react uncharacteristically to words of another, causing several deaths, we'll never know. But the resulting tragedy that occurred is felt by those who remain. The mother of the child reminded me of the power of words and I am now forever changed.
Words, and the emotions attached to them, can linger for a moment or for a lifetime. Some even last many lifetimes. They affect not only the speaker, but the recipient and can even be passed along a chain of people, affecting and effecting many.
The power of Words.
They can hurt us.
May we use them well.
~Melissa
A childhood phrase that everyone knows.
Words.
If only words didn't hurt us. Unfortunately, we all know words can hurt us very deeply. Words can lift us up and make us fly or beat us down and destroy our soul. They can even kill.
As a writer, I know words evoke certain feelings and images depending on how they are written. The written word leaves feelings that stay with us long after the story has been read. We think about them, ponder for days on what they truly mean.
Songwriters, politicians, clergyman, policemen, teachers, doctors. Their words when spoken have meaning to us. Family, friends, mentors, they all elicit feelings from their words as well. Helpful, hurtful, engaging, disenfranchising. Pick one or more. Emotions balance heavily on their scales depending on a well chosen word.
Words can be very powerful and inspiring. Or they can leave us with thought provoking mysteries that can only be reconciled within ourselves.
Yesterday, I attended a funeral for a great man who was killed as a result of words. The exact words that prompted his fine, learned young son to react uncharacteristically to words of another, causing several deaths, we'll never know. But the resulting tragedy that occurred is felt by those who remain. The mother of the child reminded me of the power of words and I am now forever changed.
Words, and the emotions attached to them, can linger for a moment or for a lifetime. Some even last many lifetimes. They affect not only the speaker, but the recipient and can even be passed along a chain of people, affecting and effecting many.
The power of Words.
They can hurt us.
May we use them well.
~Melissa
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