Oh how I love words. I think Frank McCourt put it best in Angela's Ashes. He described reading Shakespeare as  "having jewels in my mouth." Words are precious. They can make you want to stand up and shout Hallelujah, they can make you cry. When someone says something mean to you, it can pierce deeper than a sword. When someone says something nice to you, it can change the trajectory of your life. Words are powerful. It is hard writing story after story but sometimes you write that one sentence that makes you say "how is it possible I haven't been discovered yet." I love when that happens to me.

I've been thinking a lot about words lately. Partly because I'm still dealing with some stuff from some words someone said to me that were not very nice. But also because of the whole Laura Schlesinger brouhaha (I don't think I've ever written that word before) over the N word. Oh, Laura. Hopefully you know what I'm talking about if not take it to the Google. Anywho, whenever someone in the public eye gets caught saying THAT word it stirs up debate. No debate for me. It is a vile, disgusting word. When I hear it I immediately see images of people who look like me, who look like my children swinging from trees. However, I recently got into a conversation with someone of the Caucasian persuasion about THAT word. I said  THAT word is not a word anyone should be able to just easily let roll of their tongue and that if it does that's problematic. I didn't say that meant the person was a racist  but  I do find it suspect if it can just roll out of your mouth. My friend of the Caucasian persuasion said well it's confusing because some black people use the word, so ... I don't get why it's confusing. Do you want permission to use the word and if so why? I don't know maybe it's not all black and white(pun intended). But if you know it's a word that has the potential to insult, degrade or just piss people off why would you want to use it. I'm not confused about why we don't say the R word for people who are mentally challenged or the host of other racial slurs for ethnic groups that I don't belong too. I don't walk up to an Asian person and say I'm confused is it okay or not for me to call you..... Yes, all the rappers say it, but are they really our role models? They also pour champagne on half naked girls so should I be considering doing that? Call me Pollyanna again but if it's not a nice word don't use it. What are your thoughts folks?? Choose your words carefully today. Until next time.