The Power of Words

I've been following this anime 'XXXHolic' lately. For less-informed, anime stands for Japanese animation or in more common terms, cartoons. I love animes. I think Japanese are great storytellers.

Anyway, there were these two related episodes titled 'Seal' and 'Release'. In these two episodes, the main character encounters a pair of twin sisters who are very different in character. The younger sister brims with self confidence while the older sister lacks any self-confidence. The storyline illustrates the power of words. As the story progresses, we discover that the older sister lacks confidences because she keeps telling herself 'I can't do anything right'. As a result, her actions mirror her words; turning her into a clumsy, insecure girl. The hero attempts to help the poor girl but at the point of breakthrough, we discover another facet to her problem: her younger sister. The younger sister also reinforces these thoughts by always telling her older sister 'Oh my poor sister can't do anything right. Father and mother will be so worried about you if you go to work.' Fortunately, the story has a happy ending, where the girl manages to break free of her 'chains' of words.

Isn't this very true in our lives as well? Words can encourage and lift up, break people's confidence, condemn people, break relationships and mess with people's thoughts. In the hands of higher authority, words can mean the difference between life, death, freedom, imprisonment, war or peace. On a positive note, words can heal and set people free. Basically, the bottom line is we should always choose our words wisely when dealing with people and ourselves.

Comments

Las montaƱas said…
how true. but in order to do that, gotto be good in the language.

we should try telepathy instead.
Jonzz said…
LOL, we do have something in common. I am referring to your comment about telepathy. Too bad it's unavailable to us. Words in themselves are insufficient to convey the full depth and context of their exact meaning and prone to misinterpretation.

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