Just Words
Pictured above, an image, consisting of words. Just words.
Sticks and stones will break my bones
But words will never harm me.1
A silly rhyme. A child's rhyme. A rhyme meant to bolster a child's resistance to - and yet, a false rhyme.
Words have power. Words have meaning. They convey information; they can slander, wound, incite, unite.
Words matter.
Sticks and stones will break my bones
But names will never hurt me.2
Names are labels. Labels categorize, conveying at times groups of meaning and insinuation, permitting embedding of meaning, history, relative perspective and relevant (or irrelevant) influence.
Labels can be embedded in the culture, in a meme, in an event, or associated with a person, place, thing.
Labels can be just as bad - or good - as their use, and as their assigners & wielders intend.
Just like names.
And words.
And phrases.
Fortunately, words and phrases have power that we give them, and within that power is a very unique, very potent capacity to unite, to inform, to support and strengthen.
Words - and gestures, too - can be deftly used to heal, to cleanse, to recategorize, to organize, to build, to identify, and to exemplify.
Words. Gestures. Images.
Symbols.
Marks of humanity, our hope and compassion, our capacity to strive to overcome and to survive.
Let's be human, together.
And on that note...
The images included in this diary are for you - your use, as you see fit, if you have any use for them. I've updated the image library license to ensure "anywhere with attribution" so that they can be used freely on-site and off.
Footnotes
1, 2 Both footnotes refer to excerpts from this Wikipedia entry: Sticks and Stones (nursery rhyme)