Audge

Here I go again, up on my soapbox about the latest topic running through my head.

Well this time, it's all about the written and spoken word. Have you ever realized how much sway words have over us? It influences and directs our actions more then I think we give it credit. The emotions that words can bring about in us is unmistakable.

I recently watched another TED talk, yes another one, and could not help but be incredibly moved.

She had an incredible understanding of not only the power and expression that words have, but also the performance and/or verbal communication of those words.

Give it a watch.

Words are everywhere. They are in everything, whether we like it or not. We learn to speak as children, then we learn to write those words, then we learn how to express those words. It's a simple path to self expression.

It's ironic, as I sit here, trying to express how I feel about words, I'm struggling to find the right words. Let's break it up first by starting with the written word.

Writing words down should be considered one of the most personal, yet public, displays of expression. We write in journals. We write on blogs. We write on small scraps of paper sitting at the edge of our desk. We write advertisements. We write novels, plays, and lyrics. Words are written everywhere. Words can tie us together, like in letters or notes, or even a text. I was recently doing some research, and had the chance to read a love letter written between a leader in my church and his future wife. Oh the beauty and simplicity it contained. Just simple, meaningful words between two people.

Personally, I've always loved to write. Not necessarily every form of writing (heaven forbid anyone had to read my poetry in high school), but many of them. I was an avid journal writer as a child, and though I'm not as good at it now, I do my best. Clearly, I love writing on my blog. I've found I can express how I feel about different subjects in a clearer way on a blog. When you read something on my blog, it's literally out of my mouth. It's exactly how I would say it. Humor and all. Snarkiness and all. Passion and all. It's effective for me to organize my thoughts and feelings and feel like I'm developing my own opinions, as well as learning from others. I love it.

But everyone has their own form of communicating words. I think an EXCELLENT literary example is The Book Thief. It's all about words and how the words changed her. She says....


The spoken word I think is just as powerful. As this lovely lady in the TED talk displays, the spoken word has the ability to move people in tremendous ways. That poem she starts out with just hits me right in the gut every time. It's like she's speaking a language my heart recognizes, but is working to learn how to express. Think about the different ways we hear the spoken word: school lectures, church talks, radio, television, conferences, forums, speeches, the list goes ON! I think it's one of the reasons I love TED Talks so much. Those words and feelings the speakers express have a way of inspiring me. It's as if they click a switch inside of me that suddenly turns on a whole new light on a subject I had never thought about. The spoken word has endless power to motivate, inspire, anger, uplift, instruct, and edify.

Being a history buff, I can't help but think about the countless times that words have powerfully changed a moment, an event, and entire generations. Here are a few examples that I love dearly:

1. Let's start with the champ of words himself. I mean...the guy basically invented half the English language, William Shakespeare. I think one of the most renowned and, in my opinion, on of the most clear pinpoints of human thought is this passage from Hamlet:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil.

Shakespeare alone created thousands of words now in our language. Take a look here at just a few of them: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html

2. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: November 19, 1863.
This address, this man, will forever go down in history at its impact. Having worried for countless hours leading up to his speech as to what he should say and how he should say it, he finally concluded that it would be a short few minutes. Following Edward Everett's two hour oration, he stood up, feeling ill, and started with the now iconic "Four score and seven years ago..."

Little did he know the impact this short two paragraph speech would have. Not only did it become iconic, but he expressed the horrific nature of what happened on that battle ground, and that none should ever have to happen again. He expressed his solemnity in such a magnificent way, that even today, I feel that emotion when I read it.

3. Winston Churchill. A man which I admire greatly, and know without a doubt he was right where he needed to be in this world. Though he had dozens of incredible moments and words, there is one particular one that I think historians and I would agree on. In June of 1940, as Hitler's war was raging on, invading France and what seemed like the brink of invasion in England, Churchill stood up to give a speech in the House of Commons. The following words stir me to my very core:
*quoted from an article written by The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/finest-hours*

I don't know about you, but those words hit me and I'm never more proud to be an American.

I could list at least a dozen more, because I could talk about history for hours, but I'll spare you.

Words have the capability to move people, their actions, and their behaviors. They touch us and they become us. Why else would we be so excited when a baby learns their first word? Words are incredible tools that can enable us to touch others and instill feelings and emotions that otherwise could not be obtained. If you gave me 45 minutes, I could hands down convince you of the power that Harry Potter has. (I'm kinda joking.....but..not really) I love the quote from Emily Dickinson,


So even if you feel you don't have anything to say, or that no one would listen to you or read what you write, don't think of it as something you're doing for someone else. You do it for yourself. :)