THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD?

I’ve always believed that words have the power to enthral, captivate and mesmerize you. Their purpose is to draw you into a place or inspire a feeling deep inside you that leaves an indelible impression. Whether it be a romantic love story or a political thriller, or even the musings of ordinary life of a woman or man as they try to make sense of it all, words have the power to resonate and leave their footprint behind on your mind.

Today we are an instant gratification, 10 seconds of fame, grab it while you can kinda culture. We seek what is different, wacky and controversial. We become voyeurs into the lives of others through their blogs, as we disseminate and peer into their minds. It seems that anything goes and nothing is sacred anymore. In other words, there is no mystery!! Gone are the days when you had to guess at an ending of a book, movie or a letter –now we can download them at the click of a button online and quick as a flash we know how it ends.

It saddens me that there is no more element of surprise anymore. We seem to know everything, but know so little. With all our voyeurism into other people’s lives, we’ve forgotten how to live our own. We've crossed that invisible line between privacy and decency, and the consequences are devastating. Little things like honesty, manners and commonsense don’t concern us anymore.The more outrageous and controversial the writer, the more we flock to read them. Here the pen is used to devastating effect, and we seem oblivious to this. Recently in the UK over 50% of children didn’t know what a potato was, but they could name just about every cartoon character imaginable! The mind boggles.

I am guilty of this one, but I don’t write letters anymore. It is easier to type it than write a letter, in fact my hand starts to cramp up if I do. How sad the genteel art of letter writing has all but disappeared.

I wonder how Shakespeare, Byron, Wordsworth and Dickens would have coped with computers and typing. Would their plays have had the same meaning? or would it have been lost somewhere in the often soulless and impersonal typing of a computer screen.

To me words are the very essence and food of life, without them we would loose our humanity and being.

Bring on the words and remember they have the power to change lives!!!