How much do
words impact our lives? How are we changed by new words that suddenly have a
meaning where none existed before? Recently, we commemorated the 50th
anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy, and it led me to think
about the words that are forever connected to that tragic event. For those of us
alive on November 22, 1963, words like motorcade,
book depository, and assassination suddenly became part of
our vocabulary and took on new meaning. In fact, if you were young, you may
have never even heard those words before, and yet for many of us, we will never
hear them again without thinking about a day in Dallas that forever changed our
lives. Just as the simple words in the turn of phrase, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for
your country” are forever etched in our minds, so, too, are eternal flame.
As writers,
words are so important. We work with words, live by words, and are always
trying to find just the right word. Even in this digital age, many of us still
have our well-worn dictionary and thesaurus near our desk in case we need to go
in search of the perfect word to use in our writing. There are words that have
special significance to writers:
manuscript, submission, rejection, advance, royalty, review.
For
students, words like assignments and pop quiz can strike terror to the heart. Bullying has become a commonly heard
word in schools and in the media, as well as
twerking (who knew what that even meant a few short months ago?) and guns. When I was a student (too many
years ago to mention), the word gun
was never even mentioned in the same breath as school, and yet today they are
all too often associated.
Ask anyone
who is dealing with a health issue and they will probably tell you how words
like tests, appointments, doctors,
and hospital have taken on new
meaning for them. There are some words that stop you in your tracks, words that
we dread hearing and hesitate to even mention, cancer certainly being one of them. Think then about what the word
cure means.
Thankfully,
there are words that make us smile: babies,
puppies, kittens, birthdays, sunshine, and summer. The word vacation can make someone sit up and pay
attention, especially someone for whom the words hours, overtime, and stress have become too familiar.
There are
some words we’d all like to hear more: happy,
content, dessert, and chocolate. And some less: crime, tornado, unemployment, and earthquake.
Then there
are words that are new and some that have taken on new meaning: laptop, tablet, smartphone, and
e-reader.
This time of
year, turkey, trimmings, holiday,
cookies, shopping and gifts are heard more frequently, and after the New
Year, it will be diet, exercise, and resolutions, quickly followed by the
ominous taxes.
Words can
make us happy or sad; show our weaknesses and our strengths; our stupidity or
our knowledge. They can show how much we’ve learned…and how much we still have
to learn. They can tell someone how much
we love them or how much we hate, and they can change the world. The numbers
9-11 have become a word in themselves, ones that gave whole new meaning to a
simple date.
Where would
we be without words? Words are power, words are who we are, and they make the
world go round. What new words will be born in the year 2014? What words will
take on new meanings? What words, because of some incident or new knowledge,
will forever become part of our language, our repertoire and part of our
civilization? What words 50 years from
now will still echo with the impact of those said on that fateful November day
in Dallas?
