Van Ree's Voice

Words are powerful. Some people think that one can only understand the true power of words if they like to read or write. But words are not saved for bookworms or novelists - words are for everyone.

Words are a part of everyday language. The way someone uses words, what words they use and how they say them can tell a story about them. Just by listening to someone speak one can infer things like where they are from, where they have been, sometimes their level of education and sometimes even the social cliques they associate themselves with.

Hobbies and passions can be seen within the sea of verbs and nouns, sometimes without the person even realizing how much they are revealing about themselves to a complete stranger.

But words aren’t just about a person’s identity; words are so much more than that. That is just one example of what simple words can accomplish.

One of my favorite quotes from Robert Frost is “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Sometimes words like these are hard to swallow or understand, but then again that is the beauty of them. Written words can sometimes give us an outlet or describe a situation we find ourselves in perfectly. That may in part be the reason that so many people love music. Not only is music emotionally stimulating sometimes due to a singer’s voice or a certain musical beat, but also the words can fit so well into what we are experiencing in our lives that if you are a music nerd like me you can listen to that song on repeat for days.

Words have the power to not only empower one person and their daily contacts but also masses of people.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is just one example of words that are still seen today as a way to inspire a nation.

But just as words can be used for good, they can also be used for evil.

Though we all try to forget and forgive, words are so powerful sometimes that when something hurtful is said it changes the relationship between two people forever.

Though my parents banned many words from my vocabulary when I was younger like the word “can’t” and any cuss words, one word that I always knew was a big no-no was the word “hate”.

Of course when I was really angry I resorted to phrases such as “I strongly dislike that person,” but I still knew hate was an ugly, un-needed word - at least when directed at a person.

I understand there are certain circumstances that trump this ideology such as a mourning family’s reaction to a murderer for example. Other than those severe cases however I never see a need to express such harmful language to another person. Once words are said or written I believe they can never be fully taken back.

I stress the power of words because a person’s use of them can ultimately define part of who they are – their attitude and other aspects. Words can be empowering and lifting or hurtful and unruly.

I will never forget one YouTube video that my college roommate showed me one day. I was down in the dumps and looking for an attitude adjustment. She showed me a video entitled, “The Power of Words.”

The video might seem a bit cheesy and slightly staged but that’s not the point. The point of the video is its message. It shows a blind old man begging on the street for money. The man receives little attention or donations as commuters travel by him.

His sign reads, “I’m blind please help.”

As the depressing mood of the man’s struggle sets in one woman walks by and flips his sign over, writing a new message on the back. Throughout the day people passedby the new sign and donations began to pile up.

The old man asks the mysterious woman what was so kind that she wrote. Her response was, “I wrote the same, just different words.”

The sign now read, “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.”

Contact Hannah Van Ree at [email protected]