The Way We [Words] Are

So many things have been running through my head lately that it's getting hard to pick one. I am unaware if anyone else has this problem, but often times I will be riding around in my car and a thought hits me like the crack of a bug on the windshield. A lot of times the thought seems random, and often has to do with something I have read or heard in the past. I began wondering about sayings such as, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and "The tongue is sharper than any double edged sword." I don't know about everyone else out there, but when it came down to it, I think I would prefer a tongue lashing to a stab wound most any day. Then I really got to thinking about it. We get hurt, physically, often in our lives. It may be a car accident or a broken bone, but we heal and often rarely think of the event in our daily lives after we have recuperated. If you look around you, you can easily find, hurt, insecure people that are carrying mental scars from an insult hurled at them on the playground. Every time they look in a mirror it stings again, or every time they step on a scale, it creeps through them like a dreary storm. Not to say there are not physical hurts that can change your life, of course their are. A lot of times, even with physical scars, it is the mental trauma they cause that sticks with us.

Since time began people have used writers and great speakers to sway the thoughts of society. Words are medium of power to both great, and horrible leaders. Actions are required, but words are absolutely necessary. People follow great charismatic speakers like sheep, placing their trust in every word (Hitler anyone?) I wonder why in the grand scheme of 'things with power' that words are at the top of the list, yet we use them so carelessly. I read an article recently in a magazine that contained a study on verbs. Hooking sensors to a persons face, they read verbs to them both with positive and negative connotations. When they read words like "Smile, Laugh" people's smile muscles responded, when reading negative words like "Sad, Frown, Cry" their frown muscles kicked in. Words resound in us like an electric pulse creating not only mental, but physical, and emotional reactions. It makes you stop and think a little more before you speak.