Executive Director’s Editorial

Michael Garlin

The impact our WORDS can have.

We often talk without thinking first and without being aware of the impact of our words. Yet they can have powerful impact on others and on ourselves. Put your mind in gear before putting your mouth in motion. We need to encourage the use of words that celebrate and affirm life.

“I can live for two months on one good compliment” – Mark Twain

Our language is what sets us apart. It’s what makes us distinctly human. We use words to connect with one another and to give meaning to our experiences. Before words we used hand gestures and drawings. When you are talking to someone else, what you’re really doing is sending pictures back and forth.

Good teachers and good speakers paint vivid verbal pictures. They do this by telling good stories to make their points. If you are a good storyteller, you’ll be a good teacher. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A good story paints a thousand pictures. Words are what we use every day of our lives to connect with the world and the people in it. The tools we use to greet, inform, ask, answer, teach, encourage, comfort, praise, celebrate, thank, pray, laugh, and connect in a myriad of other positive ways. Kind words cost little but accomplish much. They can even change lives.

Words by Leo Rosten They sing. They hurt. They teach. They sanctify. They were man’s first, Immeasurable feat of magic. They liberated us from ignorance and our barbarous past.

A friend of mine is a teacher, and he asks his students each year to help him with an experiment. He shares with me that there is always positive energy right before class starts. Hal gives his class a list of negative words and asks them to look at it for a few minutes. He asks the students to form five pictures and write five sentences. Then the questions from the students start coming in. “This is a downer.” “Why are we doing this?” “We thought you wanted us to be positive.”

Hal always answers back that he wanted to teach them something about the emotional impact of words. A student yelled out, “you succeeded but now we all feel crappy.” One student finally yelled out, “we assume you are going to give us a page of positive words also?” He smiled and handed out the sheet of positive words. The entire atmosphere in the room changed. Animated conversation and laughter and positive energy returned. Then they did the pictures and the sentences, and the room was much livelier.

One of his students shares “Words have more impact than I thought, and these are just on paper.”

If a piece of paper with words on it can lower or raise the spirits of more than thirty people within seconds, think of the effect that some of the words we speak can have on others…and on ourselves.

Choose your words wisely, as their impact can last a lifetime. Thank you for having me back at CBS. I will always be grateful for this opportunity. Call or write me anytime, so we can share some words and smile and laugh. mgarlin@bethshalomnb.org or 847-498-4100 x21