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Words, Words, Words. Word!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Words don’t just have power. Words are power. Events that defy description may as well never have happened. Objects with no name are useless. Our entire perception of reality is shaped by the words we know. The complexity and capability of the neural pathways in our brains depends on the language we are exposed to as infants. Words are essential in making us who we are. Communication can happen without words, but only the most basic concepts or emotions. We need words to grow.
Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
File this one under “Things we tell our kids that are technically true but completely wrong.” Words obviously can’t physically hurt us the way sticks and stones can, but words can leave scars that never fade. At the same time words can create bonds of love and friendship that last lifetimes. The power of three small words can never be overestimated. We throw words around lightly, but all too often we fail to consider the damage we can inflict with them or the good we can do with the right words at the right time.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Words aren’t just what distinguish us from animals, they are the bridge from savagery to civilization. With all due respect to my fellow scientists and engineers, it is words that allow for Humanity’s greatest achievements. Music and pictures can inspire, but it takes words to provide meaning. Without the ability to communicate, we are reduced to the most basic and barest essentials in life. Our words turn our dreams into our reality.
Published in Group Writing
Quite a pæan to the wonderful word.
This conversation is an entry in our Group Writing Series under this month’s theme of The Power of Words. We have plenty of openings still this month. If you like words, have favorite words, have had words change your life, would like to share a book or play or speech, which is composed of words, well, why not sign up? Our Schedule and Sign-up Sheet awaits you as a golden chariot, that just needs the horsepower of your words to make it magically move us all forward in life.
Seriously, it’s right here waiting.
Super! You inspired me to write a post just on the topic of Lies We Tell.
Your first line caught my attention because I remember when I was pretty ignorant of much of the Bible, and found myself in a Bible study. The woman that I studied with started with that line for a good reason. She said read it again and what to do you notice? She was explaining that the Bible is God-breathed, not just words written by just men. She said notice it says not only was the Word with God, but “The Word was God.” Wow! That was a good beginning. When I was at her house, her five year old asked me has anyone ever seen God? I said I don’t think so. She said very matter of factly, yes they have – he’s right here in the Bible. She understood at that age the power of words.
Well said!
And, of course, anything God-created can be corrupted. This post needs this:
Control the Words, Control the Culture
I have to quibble here. These two clauses are put together in that adage for a reason, to convey a new, single idea which is separate from their meaning if each is taken alone.
“Sticks and stones can break my bones” (obvious) but “words can never hurt me” (not true in many contexts, as you point out).
This is a basic libertarian principle: talk all you want, that’s your right. And I can ignore you, that’s mine. But if you pick up a stick or a stone, then I might have to shoot you in the face. I hope not, so I hope you don’t escalate things to the stick or stone stage.
Your words can hurt me, but only if I decide they can. My choice. I would have to care about you, your opinion of me, in order to give your words power over me. I can choose to get angry, or choose to ignore you. Or laugh at you, mock you, construct a Haiku that captures your idiocy, whatever. You don’t really have a say. The German resistance put it nicely with “Die Gedanken Sind Frei”. (Thoughts are free.)
But if you hit me with a stick, or a stone, you could actually cause damage to me, outside of my choice in the matter. Now it’s on. Now it’s a different thing. And I hope both of us are ready for what YOU have unleashed.
I confess I may have gotten this attitude, this idea, from the most unlikely of sources, when I was young – the Warren Beatty movie, Heaven Can Wait:
The Dyan Cannon character says “I hope I haven’t hurt you, Miss Logan.”
The Julie Christie character says “I don’t know you well enough for you to hurt me.”
Well, isn’t that the entire meaning of the adage?
I won’t rehash the discussion we had on iWe’s post.
After the long discussion that Skyler referenced above, I think that I shouldn’t have classified this as “completely wrong”. There is truth here, but it’s not all true. I’m thinking in terms of what we teach children. Specifically, not just about what words can do to them, but about what their words can do to others. The part of the lesson that’s true in the adage is that there’s a difference between being physically hurt and emotionally hurt, and (as you observe) we have a choice in how much we let words affect us. But we shouldn’t teach kids that their words can’t hurt other people.
Good point. I agree.
I can’t argue with that.