Reflections for 1/17/11

"Words not only convey something, but are something; that words have color, depth, texture of their own, and the power to evoke vastly more than they mean; that words can be used not merely to make things clear, make things vivid, make things interesting and whatever else, but to make things happen inside the one who reads them or hears them."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 15)

Today is the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday.  When I was in elementary school we didn't have the day off.  I can remember sitting in the gym watching film of this icon in American History, capturing the great speeches for which he was know.  As a preacher he knew how to use words very effectively. He of course also knew how to speak passionately, animating those words.  I would imagine that those who heard him live got more from his speeches than those of us who have read them, or watched the the tape.

I find it interesting how folks like Dr. King or the founding Fathers and others as well share something in common, they all have left an impression on others and everyone seems to want to claim them as one of their people.  I know that both political parties want to assert that he was them, or represents what they stand for. Both can probably find words that he said that affirm their conclusion.

While it is true that words have a dictionary definition, they rarely get to stay that neutral.  I can read a passage from scripture and hear something vastly different than another person, not because the words changed but because we are not the same.  Those words interact with our own experiences, our own biases, and take a life of their own.

Jesus said that "we would be held accountable for every careless word we've uttered."  He understood the power of words, that you can't just fall back on "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."  We get caught up in reacting to our language when something awful occurs.  The Tuscon shooting is a great example of this.  Everyone more interested in blaming others and their rhetoric while failing to see how their rhetoric played just as much a role.  We'll wrestle as a society with this issue for another week or so and then fall back into the same pattern, I regrettably think.  As long as I can fool myself into believing that words are nothing more than ink on a page, I will continue to be overwhelmed by how often destructive actions occur because someone thought they were just words.

Blessings,
Ed