The Power of Words

Have you noticed how common the common language has become? It seems that words are losing their impact. There are still people out there that can command language to do impactful works, but in general it seems as though many words have lost the rich meaning they once had.

Take the word awful for instance. You might hear someone say “that soup was awful”. The word used to have so much meaning though. Awful. Full of awe. “That sunrise this morning was awful.” There are so many other words out there to describe something as bad. Why did awful have to be changed?

How about provocative? These days you are most likely to hear the word used to describe the attire of a young lady who should probably be showing a little less skin. Again, let’s look at the root though. Provoke. To stir up. The ending -ive. Tending toward a specified action. So provocative should provoke us to action! Isn’t the oil slick in the gulf provocative? It should be!

And finally, how about careless. We use the word to refer to someone who is clumsy. How about someone who is a free spirit? Couldn’t they be described as careless? “In spite of the tragedy surrounding her, she was totally careless.”

Words can be so much more inspiring than they have come to be in this age of texting and tweeting. I’m a big advocate of keeping up with the times as evidenced by the fact that I’m even blogging. But let’s not lose site of the power that our words hold. Let’s all try and be more careless, provocative, and awful in our day to day lives. C-U-L8-R.