What’s in a Word?

I was under the gun to get this column finished. The editor had me in her sights so I decided to bite the bullet and give it my best shot. 

That was the lead for an article I wrote two years ago in my local paper.

Now go back and read it over again.  Do you see four familiar phrases? In case you missed them, here are some hints: dodge a bullet, don’t shoot the messenger, drop a bombshell, faster than a speeding bullet, fully armed, loaded for bear, more bang for the buck.

They all originate in language that refers to lethal weapons. Yet how often, when using these expressions, does anyone make that association?  On the evening news not long ago a reporter led off with a story about a local murder/suicide. Immediately following there was a story about the state of the Boston public schools. Several educators were interviewed by that same reporter, who asked, at one point, if anyone believed there was a silver bullet that could fix some of the problems. Was she at all aware of the irony in her choice of words, coming as it did hard on the heels of the initial report?

And does it even matter? After all, Romeo famously asked, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” True enough, yet because “rose” is the name we associate with beauty and fragrance , the word always suggests loveliness. So too, whether consciously or not, gun-related imagery is always associated with violence. Sorry, Romeo, there is a lot in a name.

Unlike the playground chant, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me,”  I believe our words matter a great deal; that words do hurt and that words can heal. 

A Japanese scientist, Dr. Matsuru Emoto, who experimented with water to show the power of words, discovered that when the words “thank you” were taped to a bottle of distilled water and frozen, they produced crystals with delicate, symmetrical crystalline shapes.   That was also true when distilled water was exposed to classical music. But when water samples were bombarded with heavy metal music or labeled with negative words, or when negative thoughts and emotions were focused intentionally upon them, such as “Adolf Hitler”, the water did not form crystals at all and displayed chaotic, fragmented structures.

He demonstrated that words do indeed produce reliable, physical results. Just as words affect water droplets, so too will we, who are 60-90% water, be affected by their power, for good or for ill. 

When I wrote my original article, death by deadly weapons was almost a daily occurrence on our city streets.  Naively, I believed and I certainly hoped that our country, especially our government, would wake up and do something; that unregulated gun sales, neighborhood appointed militias, the proliferation of military grade automatic weapons would decrease and, most of all, that the heavy hand of the NRA would lose its iron grip. After all, this was after the massacres at Sandy Hook, Aurora and San Bernardino.  Surely, something would be done to prevent further tragedies like those.  That was two years ago. It’s clear that nothing’s changed.  Indeed, during those two years wholesale slaughter has threatened to overwhelm us.  Over fifty years ago a songwriter asked, “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?”  I wish I knew.

There is something, though, that we can do.

We can clean up our language. Unless we change the way we speak, I submit we will have a much harder time changing the culture of violence that has taken over our lives.

The prophet Isaiah wrote: “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth…so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.” Isaiah offers an opportunity: to choose words that nurture and heal; that bring life, not destruction. It’s a simple thing; to think about what we are really saying. Here’s one to get us started. Instead of craving a silver bullet to fix a problem, how about asking for a magic elixir instead?  After all, if a simple “thank you” produces gorgeous crystals of ice, think how far words of peace and good-will can go to begin the healing.