Say the Word

I love words!  I googled how many words are there in the English language and there were one million, nine thousand , six hundred and fourteen with THE being the most commonly used. 

What got me thinking about words was last night when I was chatting with an online “friend”.  He referred to his ex wife as The Ex.  I always say My Ex.  So I was thinking about that and I think that maybe you can tell how long someone has been divorced by which term they use.  The Ex seems to still carry a lot of pain, hurt and maybe a little bitterness in the phrase; while my ex is more forgiving, softer.  Like the wounds have healed and while that part of your life is over, its recognized as being a part of your life. Turns out he had been divorced 4 years, me 11.  So there my be some truth in that observation. 

And just think of the millions of combinations of those words being put together and the millions of books that have been written with no two alike.  Fascinating!  Thinking of all the word combinations would be like trying to count the stars in the sky. 

I read somewhere that women speak about 20,000 words a day. Probably should double that for me as I am a talker.  Men supposedly speak about 7000 words a day.   I always joke that I have carryover words…So you might as well let me get my words out for the day or the next day will be really bad!  I wonder if that is really true.  I think it might be. In my experience, men I’ve been around don’t talk as much as I do…but then they may not be able to…hmmmmm, this may be the reason I’m single.  I need to mull this over some more.  

Words are super powerful too. You can cut someone to the core with words.  Or you can lift someones spirits with words.   The Bible talks a lot about words.  Proverbs 18:21 (Message Bible) says Words kill, word give life, they’re either poison or fruit-you choose.

I’m sure every one of us has at some point spoken words in anger that we wish we could take back.  Or said something about someone and then felt bad about it.  Words can be accusing, bitter, negative and critical.  Or they can be forgiving, positive and encouraging.  That old adage about it being better to say nothing if you can’t say something good is so true.

I think the world would be a lot better place if people would choose their words a little more carefully.  It is a continual battle sometimes at work to control the gossip.   It’s like that game we played as kids where you started with a phrase and then you whispered it to the next person and the so on and by the time it got to the last person it usually didn’t even resemble the original sentence.    And once the words are spoken You cannot take them back. 

I read a story once about a person who started a rumor about someone.  She was very remorseful to find that it wasn’t true and wanted desperately to take it back.  But  a wise old man told her that to take back words was like ripping open a feather pillow in the midst of a windstorm and then trying to collect all the feathers.  It’s an impossible task.

Sometimes just one word can warm the soul..the first word a baby speaks.  The word Thanks.  And sometimes one word can be the hardest thing to say …goodbye.  I need to google the most used phrases. I wonder if  “I love you” would be at the top. What a wonderful world it would be if so.  Much better than “did you hear that….” 

I hope next week is better.  This week was a stress filled week at work.  Most of the stress was caused by idle gossip and unkind words being spoken.   Time to hit the reset button for Monday and hope that every word spoken is thought out before its uttered. 

And now I’m off, to play words with friends.  Knowing that there are 1,009,614 words I can play is making me giddy!