Thursday, August 26, 2010

Speak with forked tongue please.

It’s hard to speak the truth. Sometimes hard to even recognize it. We have to think, check our sources and keep an open mind and heart. Even then, it will be filtered through our genetic pool, value system and experience aggregate. Quite a chore.

We use words to shape our thoughts, clarify them and express them. Words can inform, comfort, mislead, deceive and hurt. They have power.

Freedom of speech is a right and a privilege. A right to be protected and celebrated.

Some people have taken this to mean the right to say anything and everything, everywhere and in any way. The right of free association. The right to be rude, offensive and uncivil.

To speak with forked tongue means to speak with the intention of deceiving. There are times, however, when I think it might be wise to stick a fork in our tongues before we speak. Maybe our pain will remind us to think and to choose our words carefully. Words matter.