Use Your Words

When our kids were very young, there were times when they’d become frustrated or angry. They’d start to cry and throw things because whatever they wanted wasn’t happening. Their minds, their souls, were in anguish. As bewildered parents, we had no clue what they needed. We would instinctively say, “You need to use your words. Tell us what hurts or what you need.” And, eventually, they did.

Instead of throwing things, this morning, I’m using my words. I’m sending you, my soul. Each word you read is me creating and transmitting building blocks to reconstruct what I’m thinking, feeling, and believing. You assemble them. You absorb those patterns into your own neural net. You turn the model over in your head. You challenge it, modify it, deny it, or accept it. All the while, I have sent you part of me, and it has become part of you.

My words are shaping you just as you shape others through your words. It’s unavoidable. This is how our souls work. Nations are built upon it. Cultures and beliefs are established by it. Every generation transmits its understanding, knowledge, and beliefs to the next, through words.

At the most fundamental level, the human soul desires expression. It wants to push itself out of the body into the world, towards others and into the future. It seeks continuity, permanence, replication and belonging. It seeks to be seen and heard.

I’ve been obsessing on this for the past week or so. Where do words come from? I feel my soul longing. It seems to want to materialize itself through marks, art, and sound. It pushes its intentions through actions of the body. It directs the hands to craft markings that unpack the story, the emotion, and the logic of the soul. It articulates my voice and body to convey purpose, dreams, and desires. At the atomic level, my human expressions eventually become words. Energy bundles of life. Packets of my soul transmitted over space and time to any living soul willing to receive them.

Words are powerful. I don’t think we always appreciate that. I know I don’t. They can change the world. They can heal. They can hurt. I should think more and speak less. I want to do better. But that doesn’t diminish the need for words and those who speak. The world suffers for lack of vision and meaning. Vision and faith come by hearing and receiving true words, important bundles of the soul, packaged with love and transmitted with care. We need more of that, not less.

We are all artisans. We shape the hearts around us by the things that are said or left unsaid. It is a burden, but it is also blessing. Use your words. Use them wisely. You, and other souls around you, depend on it.

And please, Jason, stop throwing things.