August 12, 2026
I play with words for a
living.
It’s true! At this point I’m
working on my seventy-second title for my publisher, Siren-Bookstrand. I cannot
tell you exactly how many words I have written in my lifetime. I can tell you
that, since becoming a published author, and taking into consideration my
novels, a novella or two, and of course these weekly essays (since the autumn
of 2006, once a week, minus a small handful of Wednesdays missed) the total is
more than four million words.
Can you imagine? No wonder
I’ve had carpal tunnel surgery twice on my right hand. Although in the interest
of full disclosure, I should point out that the first time—and it was on both
wrists—was due to the office work that I had done in the course of all of my nine-to-five
working life. And the only good news there is that’s why it was only on my
right wrist this time. Because I play with words only now and not numbers, too.
But I digress.
Words have meaning. I want you
to read that again, because that is one of those sentences in life that has
become a common place saying without actually being understood. So here it is
once more:
Words have meaning.
Or to state it more accurately:
words have power.
That’s a truth that has been
repeated again and often without being fully comprehended. In some cultures, both
historically and in the present day, people don’t give their names out to just anyone.
There is a deep-seated, perhaps even intrinsic reluctance to give one’s name, because it’s seen as a giving away of
power over the one named.
In the last century, the belief
that words had meaning/power was at the heart of the self-help/motivational
movements that many people used as their own personal north-stars. And then of
course, there is the Bible.
God created the world by speaking
it into existence; and then He created humankind in His own image.
Words have meaning and they
have power, and nothing annoys me more in this life than when people just open
their yaps and let it all hang out. Linguistic inaccuracy and ignorance are not
considered sins in the traditional sense. But they should be.
This isn’t voodoo, and before
you tell me you don’t believe that words have power let me ask you a question
and give you a couple of examples.
If you doubt that words have
power, then why do you compliment someone who’s feeling down? Surely their mood
has nothing to do with you. And yet you tell them something good about themselves,
something nice, and their mood is improved, and their spirit is refreshed.
Your words did that.
Conversely, those of you who
are parents, teachers, or bosses, cannot deny that sharp words, words used as
weapons, deflate the emotions of the person you’ve hurled them at. They wound. Say
the wrong thing and your employee/student may quit. A few careless words, and
your child dissolves into tears.
Your words did that, too.
Those are two personal
examples that point to a larger, universal truth. We all need to be a little
more careful of the words we choose to use. Because there’s one more power our
words have and it’s this: our words, used recklessly and with abandon, rob us
of our credibility and our integrity.
To the point that we’ll open
our mouths, and no one in this life or the next, will take us seriously.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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