In the End, There Are Only Words

Not even a month into the New Year and absurdity hits the fan.

Words don’t matter.

That was the message I received. It was intended, I am aware, to fall into the classic sticks and stones refrain from the elementary school playground. But sometimes, a phrase gets in stuck in my brain and whispers incessantly in my ear until I respond to it. Often right here.

Words don’t matter.

Really. That’s funny.

In the whole of human history, has there been a more steadfast constant in our lives? Words, grunted then spoken, supplanted the pictures scrawled on the walls inside the cave. A picture can break your heart, but the truth of a story gets its depth and connects our humanity in the words that transmit it from one person to the next. Language evolved because in the cave we realized that mere pictures were not enough.

Words, I would argue, are indeed the bedrock of human interaction.

In a world that allows institutions, even civilizations, to fall by the wayside with barely a thought, the flexibility of language, of words, is without parallel. Shakespeare used the language with abandon, stretching beyond the standard usage of his audience and, when the situation demanded, adding to the lexicon to capture a thought, an action, a mood. 

And it seems there is a bit of Shakespeare in all of us. Don’t believe me? Spend a few minutes online with UrbanDictionary.com. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe. Consider some of the new words added to the dictionary in 2013 alone. Crowdsourcing. Mouseover. E-reader. Redirect. Our willingness to allow language to grow and change makes words the most useful tool of human existence.

While the adaptable relevance of evolving language keeps it fresh and irreplaceable, its continuity may be its ultimate beauty. Throughout time the immutable and evocative nature of words is the unbreakable strand of our shared humanity. Love. Sorrow. Hope. Even the formation of the letters speaks meaning, the open, uplifted “love,” the full weight of “sorrow,” the steadfastness of “hope.” They can be seen, felt, heard just as they have been for centuries, just as they will be for centuries.

Action, memory, intent, failure, all are captured by words. What we do matters because we remember, we record, we guide, we inspire... with words. Well told or well written, words capture our achievements, foibles, aspirations, and move us forward from one generation to the next, informed, forewarned, when we choose to listen, about what came before.

All that we are, all that we do, finds immortality in words. They are the only place in which we can live forever. Because in the end, there are only words.