Words are Sharper than the Two-edged Sword | HPSC Preparation: All subjects - HPSC (Haryana) PDF Download

Introduction

The given axiom draws on Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Many of us would have experienced the veracity of this axiom in our daily lives. Words are alive and hold the power to alter the consciousness of or affect the soul and the spirit of the utterer as well as the header. Words are vehicles for our heart, mind, and soul and the means to enter into the soul and spirit and feel the other person's heart. They have the ability to change our world. We use words to communicate with our friends, family, and associates. We need words to send our message across and conduct our day to day business.

Power of Words

“Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world”. -Buddha.
Words play a huge role in our lives. Suitable words can heal our minds and bodies, enrich our souls, move our hearts, influence our perceptions and behaviours, attract positive outcomes, and manifest our dreams. Words are the official carrier of our messages. They hold power to make or break relationships and careers. They are the source of living for many people. Politicians use words to garner votes. Publicists use words to send their message to millions of people. Teachers use words to communicate with learners and transact lessons. Parents use words to guide children. The world will come to a standstill in the absence of words. On average, each person uses over five million words in one year at the rate of 16,000 words a day or 112,000 words a week. That constitutes an enormous number of words.
However, as it happens with anything that is available in abundance, words have begun to be undervalued. So much so that we tend to consider only the main things we utter or write down as significant and are least mindful of the effect some of our other words could have had on the other person. That’s how we often fail to fathom what may have soured a certain relationship. Our own words are often to blame.
Public figures often get caught on tape saying something they would never have said in public. This was true of President Obama and President Putin, whose words often had a lot to read between the lines given their dislike for each other. Politicians in India make many a slip in public discourse and later blame the media for ‘quoting them out of context’. Sting operations thrive on the words carelessly spoken by unsuspecting targets who didn’t expect to be held accountable for their supposedly ‘harmless’ words, but they were. Similarly, we generally tend to underestimate the power of the common word and use them without necessary caution. “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs”, says Pearl Strachan.
On the other side of the spectrum, “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” (Proverbs 16:24) The soothing care and words of compassion of ‘the Angel of Crimea’, Florence Nightingale, reduced the death rate of injured and infected soldiers of the Crimean war by two-thirds. Mother Teresa, the apostle of love and compassion, brought happiness into the hopeless lives of countless destitute and dying with her kind words and care.

Words, Sharper than a Two-edged Sword

For centuries, authors, politicians, psychologists, and mystics have studied and used the simple power of words to transform people’s lives. Words capture our vision and intentions, and when they reflect a strong sense of purpose, they multiply our energy and resonate with our actions. Thus, simple words take a new dimension and become instruments of power to shape our lives. Prayers and affirmations, thus, play the significant role of connecting the inner-self to the outside reality. At the same time, words uttered by an individual reveal their real inner-self demolishing the facade if any.
Words can completely metamorphose the personality of the speaker if not in consonance with their outward appearance. And they lacerate like a two-edged sword. The following narration of a US Navy ex-marine gives an apt example of this:
One afternoon I braved the Department of Motor Vehicle offices to renew the registration on my car. While standing in line, I noticed the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in front of me. Just as I was about to speak with her, she opened her mouth first. The profanity laced tirade she launched into would do a sailor proud.
Some of the vilest words I’ve ever heard shot from her mouth like a missile. You could actually feel the force of those words hitting you as she spewed all over everyone in that line. Her toe curling words were like a sword stabbing into my heart.
Right before my eyes, I saw the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen transform into the ugliest woman I’d ever seen in my life. I kept looking at her trying to find that beautiful woman I saw when I walked in there. She was nowhere to be found.
Words of ridicule, rebuke, disdain all cause emotional and psychological injury. When such verbal abuse is directed at children, it causes more than emotional trauma. It inflicts lasting physical effects on brain structure. Individuals aged 18-25 with no history of exposure to violence or sexual or verbal abuse were surveyed on their exposure to parental and/or peer verbal abuse when they were children and were given a brain scan.
The results revealed that those who reported experiencing verbal abuse from their peers during middle school years had underdeveloped corpus callosum, the connecting fibres that integrate motor, sensory, and cognitive performances between the cerebral cortex on one side of the brain to the same region on the other side. Psychological tests given to all subjects in the study showed that this same group of individuals had higher levels of anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, dissociation, and drug abuse than others in the study. During the middle school years, verbal abuse from peers had the greatest impact, presumably because this is a sensitive period when these brain connections are developing and becoming insulated with myelin that allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along with the nerve cells.

Conclusion

Words are powerful and may wound for life. They must be used responsibly so as not to cause any harm, particularly in the case of children who are sensitive to environmental effects, which can either nourish or stifle brain development. Verbal harassment from peers or verbal abuse from imposing parents can alter the brain's physical structure, cause emotional harm, and raise the risk of psychiatric problems. The consequences are societal too. So, schools and societies must never tolerate verbal abuse of children lest they should play incubator for developing brains with abnormalities. In fact, verbal abuse of any kind directed at individuals of any age should be made strictly punishable under law.