WORDS TO SWIM OR DROWN IN

Words....!

Like chiseling tools that burrow into the brain, sculptor's hands which re-shape whatever they touch, bee stings which stun our complacency. Since the first grunts in caves, words have changed the world.

"Let there be light..." "Let my people go..." "Do unto others..." "I am Allah's prophet..." "Cogito ergo sum..." "We will plant a new city on the hill..." "The audacity of hope..."

Words by the billions have been uttered in every family and tribe, every city and nation. Humanity is distinguished from the animal kingdom because it has a voice.

"Give me liberty or give me death..." "When in the course of human events..." "We are a nation of laws not men..."
"Four score and seven years ago..." "A war to end wars..." " The only thing we have to fear is fear itself..." "Ask not what your country can do for you...."

Words are formed in the mouth, but originate in the mind and heart. As we have been shaped by the words of others, so do we use our words to shape the world. Once sounds that could only reach as far as the voice could carry them, today's words are generated by a billion minds and hearts every digital moment of the day. Many burning like lanterns in the night; others hissing like snakes in the day.

"After me, the deluge..." "Let them eat cake..." "Thus be to tyrants..." "Jim Crow...." "Master race..." "Kamikaze..." "The Great Satan....""Too big to fail..."

There is no sure way to measure all the words ever spoken, but our cathedrals and our cemeteries are filled with clashing examples of how they have been read.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." "We forced them into a trail of tears..." "I come to hunt the white devil, Moby Dick..." "In America there are no second acts..." "As God is my witness, I will never go hungry again..." "I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers..." "He was not only liked, he was well liked..."

Mothers coo them into the ears of their feeding infants. Teachers into the ears of their reluctant students. Popes and presidents as they seek to lead. So many words. So many voices. So many times. So hard to distinguish which to hear, which to ignore.

For instance, starting right here........