Lately the universe has been provoking me to think still more about Words. It began with an Eric Church song entitled: Kill A Word. It continued with an idea to write a series of stories called: All That To Say. It poked me with this line on Fresh Air: “…there are few joys to rival that of writing a sentence that nails it — whatever ‘it’ is.”
Word clouds kept me up burning the midnight battery-life while I read Beautiful, memorable sentences. The meaning behind words we take for granted teased me when I heard blues artist, Otis Clay explain that in his youth the blues were considered Devil’s music.
Words took a bow when I reminisced on those gathered together by David Bowie in his song song, Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.
I don’t think my consideration of Words is going to end any time soon.
So for now, I’m thinking about other people’s words. Specifically other people’s words sent to me in texts. Surely, some of these deserve to be on a list of beautiful, memorable sentences or incorporated into song lyrics. At a minimum, they should be listed in a blog post somewhere.
Because words well-arranged have curative properties. They make us pause, step away, consider what we’ve heard. They make us sigh aloud, and roll them around in our minds in the same way we might savor a spoonful of homemade peach ice cream on our tongue. They have the strength to lift us up, rendering even the strongest stress, ineffective. They demand to be memorized, spoken, written, repeated.
“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.”
Words: create, build-up, sustain.
Words: give hope, extend love, fill life.
Words connect us to the one who wrote them whether or not we know the writer.
Consider the effect of these random strings of words, out of context, without a name or face to go with them, from my own text-files.
“Yeehaw! We are coming to see you in TWO WEEKENDS!”
“Okay I will get you a donut.”
“I.got.a.job!!”
“The truth is: we are just going to miss her for awhile and then we will find our new way. Together. We will go through this missing thing together.”
“Pickles are a lame party food, so take that right off your list. No one needs to stress about pickles.”
“Yay! such a love story…”
“Drunk driver hit me. But I’m good dad. I made it through…”
“Home safe. Love you. Goodnight…”
Take Off Your Shoes 