Keep the Faith

Just Words

That the pen is mightier than the sword is such a cliché, right?

And what do you need stacks of words for when you have an army?

But it was words that started it all. Snide words, spiteful words, words of stick and stone. They could break bone, they really could. Maybe it wasn’t the only thing that set everything in motion – destination disaster – but they were part of it.

Words can be so hurtful.

But words can also heal. They can help and they can give hope.

Sometimes it’s strange to think that they can make such a difference – any difference. They're just words after all, aren't they? Maybe not. Maybe that’s not all there is to it. Because when put together with so much emotion, love, devotion, they seem to become something more. Almost as if they’re living a life of their own.

Of course it hurts to write your heart out. To write and write and write until your soul is completely spilled out – all raw and glistening, greeting the world with frightened cries. And yet we all do it.

Why?

Why do we pour the very essence of our beings into letters and syllables? Is it because of something we believe in? Or because we don’t know what else to do? Or simply because we just have to. Because we just can’t sit around and do nothing.

When bad things happen it sometimes break people. But there are those who don’t break from pressure. Like precious stones, like glimmering brilliant diamonds, they are born from it. From hardship and tragedies they rise, stronger and shining clearly. From what seems to be the darkest hours they find themselves with a will to shed some light. To drive the thick black mist out, not only of their life but out of the lives of everyone who needs help.

A mission? A cause?

I don’t know.

And is it really possible for words to change the world?

I don’t know.

But while we’re on the topic of clichés, don’t they say that nothing is impossible as long as you believe?

I don’t know.

But I think we believe. I think you believe. All of you.

And I wonder, what happens when one believe that words really can save lives?

Could it be that the pen really is mightier than the sword after all?