The basic words are not single words but word pairs.*
(Martin Buber)

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.**
(Proverbs)

It feels as though social media deskills us when it comes to using words.  There can be a separating of who we are becoming – the source of our words – from the words we use.

Once upon a time, unless you were part of the world’s elite, the only way to communicate was if the other was right in front of you.   This will always be the most significant visual or illustrating of our words.

There’s a silence before words, but I’ve found myself wondering about the silence beyond words.  How there comes a time when people have shared time together, have conjoined their vocabularies, before remain.ng in each other’s company silent, full of the presence of the other.

(*From Martin Buber’s I and Thou.)
(**Proverbs 15:1; Today’s New International Version.)