May I please have a WORD with you?
I've always been fond of words. I remember learning the word personification in the third grade and I remember thinking it was the best word ever! I love to speak metaphorically and I still love to learn new words. My brother and sister always tease me when we play Scattegories because I have a certain look on my face when I say a word that I am particularly proud of. In the fourth grade, I was the grade level representative for the school wide spelling bee and I remember what my mom said to me when I lost against the fifth and sixth graders. She said "Well, you will never forget how to spell the word ASSOCIATION again!" She was right just like always!
Here's the thing about words. There are a myriad of ways to use words. A word can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. There is so much power in a word. At the beginning of the school year, I had a very interesting experience with words. There were two emails in particular that I received on the same day. The first one said not to be offended if the emails that I sent didn't receive a reply because this person receives a lot of emails and sometimes can't get to them all. That one didn't make me feel so good. In fact, it hurt. Is what I have to say so unimportant that I can't even receive a two word reply like "Thank you?" A few hours later, I opened up an email from a person much higher up in the "food chain" who proceeded to tell me that the email that he had received from me was "unequivocally the best email I have ever received in the eleven years since I started working in this company." How do you think those words made me feel? I felt like I had won the lottery and I didn't even purchase a ticket! :)
If only that childhood chant we used to say so easily were true: " Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Now, more than ever it is easy to hurt others with your words. In our never ending battle to fight a society who continuously withdraws and hides behind texting and emails, we must take a stand and remember that words matter. Just like sticks and stones, words can break you if you let them...
