Johnston - Your voice matters how your words can make a difference in the world

Your Voice Matters

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Everyones Words Matter

I have this belief that everyones wordsmatter.

No matter who you are, or where you are inlife, your words matter. You can build other people up or tear themdown. You can build imaginary worlds that no one has everconceived. Those worlds can then be shared with others andtransport them away from their own troubles for a few minutes.

If youve ever read fiction, you know that itcan inspire others to write and share their own stories. Whichencourages ever more reading and more storytelling. Some works havebeen known to influence generations of other authors, movie-makers,actors, and songwriters. Even Led Zeppelin sings about events fromLord of the Rings.

If youve ever read nonfiction, you know thatit can inspire people to live a different and better life. Somebooks have influenced millions of people over the years. Peopletalk about Think and Grow Rich, or How to Win Friends and InfluencePeople. The writers of these books are no longer around, but theirwords carry on. The influence that their words carry continues onlong after they are gone.

And so, people continue to talk about thewriters. How did they come up with this idea? Who influenced them?What life situations impacted their writing? We dig into it,wondering what could possibly lead this person to write this pieceof work. We analyze the writing and the writer. We come toconclusions about them as a person and make judgements about whothey were, what they believed, how they lived their life. Thesewriters live on. As long as their writing survives, the writersurvives.

What Words Can Do

Wordscan be like X-rays if you use them properly -- theyll go throughanything. You read and youre pierced.

AldousHuxley, Brave New World

Wordsare, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

Rudyard Kipling

I can live for two monthson a good compliment."

- Mark Twain

Raiseyour words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, notthunder.

Rumi

Je suis Charlie

Recently, Islamic militants opened fire on aFrench magazine because it poked fun at the Muslim religion (alongwith other religions as well). In all, 12 people were murdered fortheir cartoons about Muslims. Perhaps they shouldnt have made funof anyone, Im not going to argue for either side. The point isthat they stood up for something they believed in. And they diedfor it.

In response, millions in France and aroundthe world rose up and demonstrated their support. They held pensand pencils in the air. New cartoons were made. Cartoons makingmore fun of Islam, but also of standing up for free speech.Cartoons were made of a pencil being broken, then the second halfbeing sharpened, only to end up with two sharpened pencils. Othercartoonists and writers began creating more and more supportingworks all over the world. Last I heard, the magazine, CharlieHebdo, had intended on releasing its usual 60,000 copies, butbecause of this incident it ended up printing at least 3million.

Obviously, they wouldnt have so muchattention without this tragedy, but it made people take notice thatothers were trying to punish them for speaking freely, for sharingtheir ideas, their words.

What happened, instead, was more people thanever came to support their ideas and to support their words.Because they were willing to stand up and say something in thefirst place made it possible for others to see them. And peoplelooking on realized that they agreed with them. Maybe not on everysingle issue, but overall, they could get behind them.

The same can be for you. Your simplewillingness to stand up and say what you believe needs to be said,can inspire others. They might not be exactly like you, but youmight be saying the words theyve been trying to express. You mightbe saying the things they havent been able to tell anyone else.You can give them the words they need at the time they need them.You can inspire them to finally start to share their own words withthe world.

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

At least we hope so, given the Charlie Hebdoincident. The swords in this case were guns, but the pen stillwon.

Rather than silencing the writers andartists, the terrorists inspired other writers and artists to peneven more cartoons and criticisms. The magazine is now known aroundthe world. Instead of 60,000 people supporting them, they now havemillions. If the sword won, I dont see how.

There are quite literally more criticisms ofradical Islam now than there were a few weeks ago. More artistshave risen to add their voices. Rather than silence anything, theyonly silenced a few people. But they added fuel to the fire thatwas already raging against them and unintentionally encouraged morepeople to stand against them. Their swords have only cut thepencils in half and sharpened both halves.

This happens all over the world, and it hasfor generations. A leader somewhere will try to silence thoseagainst him. People speak up and he sends his henchmen to arrest orkill them. And it works, for a time. Eventually, though, someoneelse will come into the light and do the same thing. The ideasarent ever silenced, however.

Every time theyre verbalized someone hearsthem and it rings true to them. The idea is then in the minds oftwo people instead of one. It has doubled. Ideas can only die ifthey are completely forgotten or never written down. But if theyrewritten down and continually shared, they will go on forever.

Words Can Live Forever

With your words living on forever, that canmean several implications:

They can change things, change people, andchange worldview.

Specifically, they can change your own life,your community, and your world.

Lets take a closer look at each one.

What are the words you speak to yourself? Thewords you tell yourself can quite drastically affect your life. Idont want to sound like those positive thinking gurus, talkingabout your self-talk and all that, but to a certain point, itstrue.

The things we think about ourselves areoftentimes what comes true. Are you really good at math or spellingor English? Chances are that you have been for some time. Itprobably started when you were young. You had a knack for aparticular subject or someone told you that you did and so youtried a little harder on that subject, or you spent just a littlemore time on it. Perhaps you really did do a little bit better inthat area, but maybe you raised the bar for yourself because youknew you were better in that area. Oftentimes, the fact that webelieved we were good at something was the reason we were.

I dont want to make this sound confusing ormake it sound like if you only believe it, it will come true. Idont really believe in all that stuff. But to a certain point itstrue. If you think youll do well at something, you probably will.If you think youre going to bomb that test, you probably will.

Have you ever known someone who always seemsto be sick? In my experience they also seem to be the ones who arealways talking about how sick they are, and how they catch everylittle bug going around, and how they never seem to avoid gettingsick during flu season. Sometimes, I wonder if theyre only sickbecause they think they should be.

The point is this, the words you speak toyourself and the thoughts you have can actually affect your life.The things you meditate on are the things that end up happening.Dont worry, meditation is just thinking about something over andover again. This can be worrying about something before you go tosleep at night. It could be turning something over in your mindagain and again, whether positive or negative. It could bereturning your thoughts to that compliment you got the other day.Whatever it is, if your thoughts always come back to it, thenyoure meditating on it.