Words

During the course of a lunch time conversation, a friend in her excitement conveyed to me words that had been expressed to her over the previous week. Almost the exact same words had been written to me from the same person a little over a year ago. I sighed inside, thanked God I never let his words lead me astray. My mind began to wonder as I sat and listened to my friend talk of her enthusiasm. I was curious, since he had said the same thing to her as he did to me, did that make his words less valid? Had he been truthful with how he felt or had he simply recited a monologue? What were his true motives? Intentions are but one thing, meaning and feelings are far more valuable. After my mental debate, I realized he was simply reciting words and I was construing them as affection. Since my lunch time conversation I have found myself contemplating the power of words.

Word: a unit of language, the smallest simplest form of expression, a statement of itself.

Words put together form sentences that can tell stories, relay feelings, convey thoughts. Words can bring about tears of joy or cause you to weep tears of sorrow. They can lift you from the darkest depths of depression or push you over the abyss. Lives have been changed, friendships have ended, arguments started over senseless words. What power do words possess? What authority do we give them?

The average dictionary contains two hundred thousand words. The average person uses a few thousand words a week and understands over ten thousand. There are twenty six letters in the English language and it is estimated that there are over nine hundred thousand words. There can be no accurate count on the number of words in the English language because so many words have a double meaning. Can it be said that all words whether intentional or not have two meanings; what is spoken or written and what is actually demonstrated, proved to be true.

When do words stop being a series of letters combined, a concept and become an expression? When are words no longer silent? When do they transform into a life of their own and convey emotion, feelings? How do you know when a word is hollow, meaningless? Can the importance of a word change over time? If a word is used repetitively does it no longer have value? Does it cheapen it’s worth? Do we use certain words so much we no longer comprehend how truly unique they are?

If one Googles "most overused words in the English language" the results will vary. Most sites will list the following words; like, ironically, amazing, nice, whatever. These words may be overused in today’s current dialogue but their crime is not as detrimental as the following words. These are the words at times that are tossed around so freely by so many they no longer have their extraordinary meaning. They are transformed by their emptiness of the intent into daily verbiage. People have forgotten certain words only hold value when they are saved for the ones who mean the most in our life. If you speak, write, utter these words, never let them lose their value. Understand these are the words that have the ability to change a person. Use them only when they carry meaning to you, never let their significance, your intent be questioned.

Friend
Trust
Honesty
Promise
Beautiful
Special
Regret
And most importantly Love!