Word Up

This past week I have been stopped short many time with words. I love words. Some words just flow right off the tongue like mucilaginous or existentialism. Some word just say it like it is: knock, syncopate, rip, burp. Other words produce feeling: chocolate, friend, sunshine, casket, goalpost, puppy.

This has been a week of emotion words: death, rescue, rape, reunion, inept, concerted, fearful, fearless, homeless, welcoming, thugs, samaritan, race, hospitality, looting, hot showers, failure, reunited, raw sewage, cold water.

Bloggers exsist because of the power of words. If words had no power, no ablility to cause the reader to think and to feel, to laugh, or cry, or bulge veins then there would be no point in blogging. This week was a bloggers dream week- those who are Bush haters found situations that they could easily manipulate into their own words of wisdom and the ever cloaked "I told you so". Bush supporters found situations that proved that they had voted the right man into office.

It all comes back to the same basic structure though. Word: A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning. A word that symbolizes and communicates a meaning. A word develops a meaning of its own by the common usage among more then one. For instance: at my house we have created new uses for the words astute( to be cunning, clever) and alert( to be watchful). Mind you, my household is pretty darned sarcastic but we often talk about each other as being a stute, or a lert. When I see the road sign that says "Keep Alert", I usually pat my hubby and say yep, I always keep my lert close by. This meaning is totally lost on anyone that has not lived in my shoes or experienced life at my house.

Words have meanings that we as readers do not always see clearly. We can only respond out of our knowledge of what those words mean to us and that is not always what the author means to portray. Then again, any good author can insight a riot in three paragraphs or less if they know their readership and what the anger button words for the month are. The blogwaves are ripe with examples this week so I will let you discover your own.

I just want to caution all blog writers to remember that the tongue is (words are) a double edged sword and if not used carefully it can cut both ways. In a week when American is United and coming together to save those who are currently more needy, be careful how you wield your words. Americans have a need to help others- it reminds them that things could be worse and that next time could be their time. Americans help because they have heart. Americans help because like to feel good about themselves and about what this nation means to them. Americans dont like to see pain and suffering. Americans really hate to have other tell them how they should feel though. We are a proud nation and we feel because that is how we are put together but we dont want someone else to fill us up with their words and expect us to feel what they are feeding us. Ok, so this is not totally accurate- there are those people in America who are just plain stute and there is nothing clever about that. Word Up