We Are Our Words by Harry Miller

"We are our words", can be traced back to Adam and Eve. We are still paying for the temptation Eve presented to Adam in the Garden. Words have been used to start wars and end them, start relationships and end them, and every thing imaginable in between. Words, I believe, are the most powerful tools available and their use is available to everyone. I cannot think of a successful business-person or politician that has not mastered the use of words in their communication.

It has been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words," but those of my older generation can conjure up images of where we were when we heard the words "President Kennedy has been shot"; or who can fail to think of Dr. Martin Luther King when we hear the phrase "I have a dream." In more recent times, the numbers 9/11 will be embedded in our memory forever.

Through my European heritage and my father's leading by example, I have learned that keeping your "word" is one of the most valuable characteristics one can earn. My second wife was drawn dearer to me because she learned she could "count on me" to be true to what I said or promised. As a side note, I learned that women can recall things said or done, forever. Words in the form of nicknames can be associated with a person forever, too. In my workplace a coworker and I shared a cubicle, and when his first son was born he would come to work relating what his little "Boo Boo" had done. Thinking that was pretty cute, I started calling my two grandsons "Boo Boo," but somehow this was turned around where they are calling me "Boo Boo." Having two special grandsons who call me “Boo Boo,” now 14 and 12 years old, is pretty special to an old "grampa.' (Not to mention the five other grandsons and one granddaughter, too!).

We are in the "Me" generation: “what is in it for me?” or “I want it now.” Through advanced technology we are communicating less: somehow texting someone "I luv u" does not replace looking into someone’s eyes, holding their hands, and saying the same words. My prayer is that we will not lose the art of communicating and using words carefully. Health-wise we become what we are because of what we eat or do not eat. Character-wise we are formed and judged by what we say. So go forth and let your soul shine!

Harry Miller