Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity.
Yehuda Berg
There’s a famous saying that a picture paints a thousand words. And it does. Art illuminates the world around us in a way that words would often struggle.
Yet at the same time, a single word can change the world in ways a picture never could, both positively and negatively.
Love. Hate. Birth. Death.
Four single words that can have a profound effect on anyone they relate to at a given time.
Our words have impact, and yet all too often we throw them around freely, as if we can take them back at any time.
But we can’t.
That’s the side effect of words being easy to come by, yet difficult to let go of when used in anger, or to promote fear, or to bully.
If I say to my wife, “I love you”, it can inspire warmth, and safety, and completeness.
However, one small change – “I loved you” – makes the sentiment completely different, and instead instils coldness, loneliness, and incompleteness.
My Word is Faith
We live in an online world where words can be dished out like the endless food at an all-you-can-eat joint.
Where people fear no repercussion, because they’re thousands of miles away.
The result of this “power” can be devastating, with people taking their own lives to end the deafening hatred following them with every step.
And to what end result? So we can feel powerful for a snapshot in time?
So we can say we’re “real men or women”?
As I type this, my kids are downstairs playing video games together. Soon, my wife will return from work and we’ll begin counting down the hours to Christmas Day, and all that entails.
While I’m not a religious person, I do believe in faith, and whatever form that takes for people around the world.
For me, faith means believing there is more good in the world than bad.
Faith means believing the darkness we allow to grow around us will finally abate as new generations take up the battle.
One word. Multiple uses and power.
In this holiday season and beyond, what will your word be?