Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Words Will Never Hurt Me???

I'm not sure if many people actually know the power of words. Words in and of themselves are simply sounds strung together to sound vaguely purposeful. But when put together, they have the power to change lives, affect global events and start wars. When Moses parted the Red Sea, what did he use? The words of prayer. So obviously, my title is patently untrue.

Once again I'm writing in response to what I read in The New Paper a couple of days ago (or was it just yesterday's issue? Must be getting old). A judge (I can actually remember her name... Hui Min, sweet name) slammed a father for using verbal poison to attempt to turn his daughter away from his estranged wife. In front of his daughter, who was at the time only 9, he called his ex-wife all sorts of names, with money-grubbing bitch being about the kindest thing he said. Poisonous to the extreme.

I've seen it so many times... From my school-going days until now, when a couple of derogatory comments by well-respected opinion leaders can sway mass opinions in one way or another. How people, newbies who have inadvertently stepped on the toes of a particular personage popular in an organisation, were sidelined and even ostracised as a result of others talking behind their backs. It can take forever or even longer for them to get away from such a bad reputation, even if at the end of it all, it just isn't justified. Most of the time, such people end up drifting aside, or trying to make a brand new start in a new organisation.

But words can also be a force for good. Look at the speeches of Pope John Paul II, which provided the impetus for sweeping reforms both within and without the Catholic Church. Or the words of MM Lee Kwan Yew, who, although the former premier of a miniscule dot on the atlas, nevertheless commands respect throughout the region.

Words as an institution is due for a whole lot more credit for consequences in our lives than we usually give them credit for. As an infant builds up it's vocabulary, even simple words that have direct meanings, nouns for instance, can come to possess certain significance to it. A Japanese child living at the foot of Mount Fuji for instance, may be more comfortable with the idea of an apple being oversized, rosé-coloured and distinctively fragrant. An American child living in Washington D.C. however may have a markedly different opinion of what constitutes an apple.

As we grow older, the power of the written word intrudes into our consciousness. From the time we are able to recognise those wormlike squiggles on paper as letters (which form words, which form sentences, which form paragraphs), a large part of our knowledge base is throughabsorptionn from written literature, be they magazines, novels, textbooks or reference tomes. Such anabsorptionn of knowledge has furthermore been institutionalised into codified education. Our textbooks follow a curriculum and as students, we are required to know what knowledge is contained within those mass-produced books. Ergo, from young, we are conditioned to believe what is printed and mass produced.

The problem is, with all that wealth of information, both in print and on the internet, we are encountering more and more instances where different publications or documents offer different opinions, using different supporting evidence, gleaned from different sources, and all going head to head with each other. What to believe? And becoming more importantly, how to believe?

It doesn't matter if you are listening to your best friend, or an esteemed opinion leader, or reading the words from a book. Listen with not just your head but also your heart. Listen both logically and intuitively. And never ever jump to conclusions. Things may not always be what they seem to be. Is the person your colleague is bitching about really so bad? Do we need to go to war simply because a political or religious leader says we should? Is chocolate really fattening?

Go figure. And remember, words do hurt.