Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots: they walk off proud; they can’t hear you calling—
Look out how you use proud words.
Words have power. The words we use become the words we live by, and they shape our understanding of the world.
Proud words assume a fuller understanding of the world than they contain. By our proud words, we may look down on our neighbors. By our proud words, we may puff up at our own excellence and preen at our own majesty. Because our words always reflect our limited perspective, words of pride will always betray themselves. As Sandburg warns, they are not easy to call back. They wear hard boots.
Words of love never
need to be called back.
This summer, Singing Hills campers slept in Cabin Zion under the watchful warning of these lines, chosen a generation ago by Mary Holdsworth Butt. They remain as relevant today as they were when she chose them in the 1950s.
This fall, as we struggle to remain united as a culture, let us remember to use humble words. Let us adopt a posture of listening to our neighbors, hearing their concerns and their hopes. Humble words of love and openness never need to be called back.
