Sunday, September 07, 2014
Words That Stick
Here is a couple
pieces of trivia for you: this last year, the USA alone published 292,014 books.
Already by the year 2007, the internet was storing the equivalent of 61 CDs per
person, a pile which would reach from the earth to the moon, and then some- and
this figure has increased since. So words have become cheap: you don’t savour
what you read anymore, but you try to “get through it”, using various
techniques such as speed-reading; and you don’t normally consider the weight of
an individual word spoken or written. Until something happens, such as Edward
Snowden revealing information which damages a country, or somebody accusing you
in public of a torrid crime. Then you notice that the effect of such “revelations”,
even if unjustified or false, don’t go away easily. Once words are out, they
stick. Or to use Biblical imagery, they bind, like superglue.
Superglue comes with a health warning, such as the
following: “Avoid contact with skin, eyes and clothing. Avoid breathing vapor.
Wash thoroughly after handling. Avoid contact with fabric or paper goods. Keep
in a cool, well-ventilated area away from heat, sparks and open flame.” The
Bible similarly issues health warning around the use of words: don’t use words
you don’t mean, don’t promise things rashly, and realize you can’t easily take
back what you have said in anger.
We might think that
such warnings are melodramatic and old-fashioned: but consider for a moment
whether in your childhood somebody said something hurtful to you which you
still remember. I certainly do, those words stuck! It takes special solvent to
get rid of them, time alone does not always heal them. Looking at it positively,
some words which we have spoken might have glued us to people or situations
which we are grateful for: marriage vows work like that, and so do religious
promises. I spoke such words 26 years ago, in a solemn situation, to a group of
celibate men, and the effect has been long-lasting. During periods when I was
tempted to give up, the glue held me in place and got me through the rough
patch. In other words, the Biblical injunction is not to never use glue, but to
use it in the right place, consciously, deliberately, not lightly.
People debate sometime what gives human beings their
dignity. Is it that they can think? Is it their ability to create and build
things? Many characteristics are unique and worth mentioning; but possessing this
binding power of speech is certainly one of them. In fact, it makes us in the
image of God. The creation account in the first book of the Bible depicts a God
who speaks, and things come into being. His words are not mere suggestions, but
they carry power to change and create. Later on, in the same book, when human
beings struggle to believe that this God could be good, we see an even more
striking passage: Abraham, one of the early patriarchs, is urged to take some
animals, slaughter them, cut them in half, and lay them out on the ground. Suddenly
a flame appears and moves in between the two halves of those animals. This seemingly
obscure act is immediately recognizable for somebody from a Semitic tribe. When
you wanted to seal some agreement, you took some animals, laid them out in such
fashion, and the parties to the agreement walked in between the two halves of
the animal, signalling that “such shall it be done to me if I break my promise”.
Strong stuff, and now God tells Abraham that He, the maker of the universe, be
rather cut in half than to ever be unfaithful to the human race. Quite a
promise! What we see here is that God uses super-glue very deliberately, in
making solemn promises, or covenants (the Biblical super-glue). And he wants
human beings to also bind themselves to the right people and situations, by
making solemn agreements. But for that to happen, we need to learn to use
super-glue sparingly, or we will be walking around with bits ripped out from us
because we had to undo things we glued together.
So next time you use your words, whether it’s to correct a child, to express
your affection to your girlfriend or to
witness in court, make sure you mean it. As the Bible says “Let your yes be a
yes, and your no be a no…For what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven!”
