What are words worth?..

I was listening to Radio Four this morning and to the politicians arguing about the latest Tory cock up. I listened to their words and realised that they had no real meaning. In a week or two they will be forgotten as we all move on to the next thing. Is it their fault or mine I wondered? If their words meant something to me should I not remember them?

It got me thinking about all the words that have been spoken over the years. Did they really make any difference? Did Winston Churchill saying, ‘We will fight them on the beaches,’ really help us to win the war? Did Kennedy proclaiming ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ cause the Berlin wall to come tumbling down? Did Jesus telling us, ‘Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone’ stop us from picking up those rocks and flinging them?

Now I’m great lover of words, can’t get enough of them, love to spout them, full of one of them some might say. I even hear words when I think, my voice telling me what I am thinking. At least I hope it's my voice. Sometimes I wonder what thought without words might be like and is that the way some others think? Animals can't use words to produce thought, so how do they do it? Do they think at all or is all instinct and habit?

I spent the afternoon with a person who has lost her words. The odd sound she made reminding me that inside her head she may or may not still be thinking. If she has lost the words in her mouth has she lost the words in her head too or are are they still going on inside there, trapped and wanting to get out? 

They say that actions speak louder than words and it seems to me that it’s true. You can say anything you want, talk a good game, make promise after promise, but if you don’t back it up with actions then the words mean nothing, so why bother to say them at all? Why not just do it? 

I have two options. I can either shut up or I can start doing as I say and neither option is simple for me.