"Words can be like X-rays . . .

 . . . if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything.”― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

Words. Have you ever stopped to think what words do for you? It was words that got me a burger and not a chicken sandwich at McDonald’s the other day. And if they had given me a chicken sandwich I probably would have used words to fight for my burger. Chances are they would have accepted my words and given me what I came for. How neat is that?! When my mouth forms strange sounds clearly enough for other people to understand, they seem to acknowledge what I want.

I am not a linguist . . . My cousin is! . . . But I still don’t know anything about linguistics. But I do know a whole lot about communicating–the art (yes, it is very much an art) of interchanging thoughts, feelings, and information between two or more people. Why do I know so much? Because it’s what I do on a daily, hourly, minutely basis! We all do. So you would think that with all this practice we would be experts at perfectly expressing exactly what we feel and what we’re thinking. Right? Wrong!

Why is it that after 10 years of marriage “Honey, I love you” turns into “You never listen to me!”? Why is it that what we hear is “Wow, you look gorgeous” when what we really feel is “That dress looks awful”?

“Why is it that the children we love become so frequently the targets of our harsh words? Why is it that these children who love their fathers and mothers sometimes speak as if with daggers that cut to the quick?”--Gordon B. Hinckley

This is No Andy Griffith Show

Hi.

Well, I suppose every blog needs to start somewhere, and that somewhere is right here for this blog. So allow me to make an introduction: Calling for Character, Reader. Reader, Calling for Character. There, now that we’re all nice and acquainted, let’s move on to the good stuff.

Ok, so I guess you want a real intro. Calling for character . . . why even bother? Good question, Reader. Let me put it this way: A mother once said to her husband in the beloved 1963 film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, “You keep forgetting if a girl is six-feet-five inches tall, she’s bound to have special problems.” Well said, Ginger. Where am I going with this? Well, I think we sometimes find ourselves forgetting that if a world has seven billion people (including the old bags), it’s bound to have special problems. Then again, the media sure doesn’t let us forget this fact with headlines such as 

“Cops nab Fla. sex offender traveling with missing teen in La.”

“Man pleads guilty in Aspen socialite killing, gets 20 years”

“Mommy blogger accused of poisoning her son, 5, to death”