If you have ever read a good book you know that it is possible to actually feel like you are in a place, or that you personally know a character after words have painted your mind’s eye and developed that relationship. You have most likely also experienced feelings of joy, pity, grief or disdain merely by consuming a craftily arranged sequence of letters and symbols on a page. Worlds can unfold with magical and otherworldly creatures and unspeakable terrors can lie just under our beds.
We, beyond most other people know just how harmful and damaging words can be. If everyone truly considered the potential ramifications that lie dormant within our vocabulary, we would surely choose them more carefully. As we live and learn we discover new truths about ourselves. One of these is that we cannot take back something once it is said. We are beings of linear time, and as much as we may regret something that might have slipped our lips, we cannot go back and un-create the effects generated.
Similarly, you know that an off-handed comment can ruin a day, emotionally harm or cause division. However, words can also empower, sooth and heal. Just something as simple as “It’s ok,” spoken in the right context can change a damned scenario into something a bit more bearable. One of the smartest statements I have ever heard is “If you don’t have anything nice to say, just don’t say anything at all.” There is not a lot of distance from our mind to the manifestations that occur when we unleash our tongue to spew words of malice, but true power is in being an observer without the need to “educate” everyone in our path. We all harbor tapes that we play in our heads of us saying something that we wish we hadn’t. In the words of Guru Pitka, “Others may say bad things about me, but that doesn’t mean I have to say bad things about myself.” We, as a community need to empower each other and ourselves. Wisdom is not being intelligent; it is about using what we have learned. We, as a community, can learn from the scenarios we experienced that were hurtful and become more evolved.
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