When I was a kid, there was something you might say to somebody in first grade who called you ugly or stupid. It was,
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
Everybody’s heard that one before. It’s a staple in the Book of Turn the Other Cheek. But names that make you feel shitty about yourself do hurt. Words can injure more than physical harm. While it’s a daily struggle to keep the body physically well and whole, the battle of the mind is often a harder one to fight. We’re constantly combatting evolutionary fears and the discomfort that comes from our perceptions versus reality, our real desires versus what society deems acceptable. It’s a mess. And while you are programmed to forget physical pain (I’m talking to you Moms who birthed babies), words stay with us. They can be indelible if you’re branded with them at a particular age or stage in your life. They can shape you; they can build, buoy, bolster, but also damage demean, and devastate.
I love words, though. I always have. And sometimes they have the power to inspire coping and healing. When I was at a low in my life and every moment felt hard, like I was walking on my knees, Langston Hughes’ poem, “Island,” helped to stand me back up. I would say it to myself all the time, especially when I got to the point when the emotional pain stabbed at me physically.
“Wave of sorrow,” I would say, “don’t drown me now.
I see the island, still ahead, somehow.
I see the island, and its sands are fair.
Wave of sorrow, take me there.”
Those words were like a rocking chair for my soul. My mind would run over them, back and forth, back and forth, until inevitably, the worst of the pain passed and I felt like I could go on. Sometimes, just saying the first line to myself was all I needed to trigger the healing.
I love reading other people’s words and how they choose to string them together to tell a story, so I will share my thoughts here on some books I’ve read and how those words made me feel. I hope you’ll do the same.
My reviews contain spoilers, so STOP reading and come back after you’ve read the books and tell me what you think.
