I have always understood the power of words. When a good writer places pen to paper he or she is approaching a canvass, as an artist might, and with the first word of a sentence, the first sentence of a paragraph, the writer is expressing his or her form of art, and expression of self. The older I get, the more I embrace the careful value that the placement of words have, and the emotion many words can convey, or sadly lack of emotion. What we say, how we say it, for me, take time, involve empathy, compassion, sincerity, perhaps sarcasm, and truth. I have discovered the BLOG, and happily so, have made every attempt to speak up, speak out, and be heard. I don’t want to spend my dying days wishing if only I had said….
I love to write, and I love the esthetics of words. Like the hues and colors an artist chooses, I try to pick, choose, select and suggest words that make a point, point out hypocrisy, and place the burden of truth on all of us who prefer to deny it. But today, September 8, 2017, I have somehow become unable to say exactly what I feel, regarding the overwhelming natural disasters which have plagued not only America, but Mexico and the Asian continent. From wildfires, to hurricanes, from flooding to earthquakes, the amount of personal devastation to toward those I know and love to mere strangers on this planet, have wreaked havoc with my brain. I am not certain anymore what can be said.
Today, as I watched MSNBC, the reporter interviewed a woman in South Florida, she was late in line and there was no more plywood. She had no car, but has a daughter and a mother for whom she is the leader, the one to be counted on. I watched as woman was interviewed on CNN, from the Meyerland neighborhood of Houston, telling the reporter, this is the second time her house had been flooded, but she has a mortgage, and reality insists that she must build on the same property, again. I sent messages go safe travels to my Florida friends who were lucky to exit the state, with all of them wondering exactly what will they come back to. Thank goodness, for the moment, I can be an observer of the dire and destructive way of the world. I am confused as to what I say…do i wish them well…do I pray for them…do i write prose about their courage…I am not sure, in this moment of time which words I should and can use. I have always, ALWAYS understood the power of words, but today, I feel like Superman being tasered with a bolt of Krypton…
