Words are not weapons unless you allow them to be. Words do not inflict injury unless you allow them to. Words are inherently weak and pathetic little cowards. Words are nothing more than ghostly corpuscles of air that revert back to an atmospheric gaseous blend once they leave a person’s mouth. Words are spineless wee things with an unfathomably short half-life; they are more overrated than a five second fuck in the fast lane, more overrated than a ten minute power nap, more overrated than Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. The human psyche does not contain pain receptors, so how can one rightfully claim words are injurious in the classic sense? Physical pain is a real, verifiable sensation. When nerve endings are irritated, they respond by hurting, sometimes A LOT. Psychological pain? Hardly. This is not to say one cannot have your feelings bruised by rude commentary because obviously that is not the case, but no useful purpose is served by assigning spoken words more heft than they deserve. Physical pain, in its extreme, is overpowering and unassailable; it is fully capable of bringing paragons to their knees. Psychological pain in the guise of having to endure insults and/or hurtful words is not. One type of pain is distinctly bearable; the other is not. And therein lies the seismic difference between physical pain and emotional discomfort. They are not the same—not even close to being the same—and guileless attempts to conflate guns and knives and brass knuckles with evanescent corpuscles of air for the purpose of equivalence are both illogical and wrong.
Fred's Soapbox 