Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Sticks and stones
May break my bones
But words will never hurt me.
That, my dear readers, is some BS at its finest.
Sticks and stones, aka guns and spears and stones and glass and metal and plastic and wood and physical objects, will always break your bones. It will also break your flesh, muscles, ligaments, organs, and cartilage, among other things.
Words. Dear gods words. Words will hurt you more than sticks or stones could. Sticks and stones hurt you physically. Your body can almost always bounce back, heal itself in a couple months. But words? They hit you and hurt, but they also stay inside your mind. They bounce around in there, hitting you again and again and again until you start to believe them. Until they become true. And each and every time they hit you, they chip away a small piece of you. Until, piece by piece, you've wasting away. You believe those careless words thrown out at you that stayed like unwanted vermin in your one safe place and made themselves at home. They tear at you from the inside, as sticks and stones would never do.
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will always tear at you from the inside out and make you take a stick or stone to end the words eating you alive.
Why do you think we're all taught words in school and not defense?
Because words are the deadliest weapon in the world, because they can bring someone up on par with the gods, or they can poison every single second of every minute of every hour of every day of a person's life until it is nothing but ashes and dust pulverized under one's shoe.
So next time you pass someone, remember that. When you see someone with nice hair, tell them that. When you see someone online struggling, tell them it's okay to take a break. When you see an author having trouble keeping up with everything, reassure them that it's okay to take an extra day to write/have a mental health day. When you love someone, tell them that. When you see someone having a bad day, take a minute to reassure them. Your words may not be able to singlehandedly stop the onslaught of weaponized words, but they can help stem the flow of rebounding words. Speak up and save a life. Please.
On other news I've become a single mother to two adorable kiddos in one day! @KermitOnABreadstick and @Heyhowareyoukiddo are my beautiful children, so don't ever mess with them or else you'll get a raging human banging down your door.
Stay safe everyone!! Quarantine isn't going to last forever, we'll be able to go outside eventually.
All my platonic love!! <3
~Ink
