The Letter I

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.
Robert Burton

A word from the mouth is like a stone from a sling.
Spanish Proverb

Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.
Pearl Strachan Hurd

If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to blind, imprison, and destroy.
Ralph Ellison

 

Out of all the muscles in your body, the strongest one happens to be your tongue (medical fact) but it has power in more ways than just the physical. Words been known to achieve some of the most incredible feats known to humanity throughout history. Words are what carry out the orders to declare war or to avoid it, words have destroyed or created entire empires, and words have glorified or assassinated a person’s character s and I am sure you can easily add to the list.

The one word that I want to write about that I think is on the top 10 list of dangerous words is the (I) word, it’s a simple word, it is the ninth letter in the alphabet and it’s imposable to misspell. (Even for me) J  Here is the story of why I dislike that letter

In the early years of our marriage when Bobbie and me used the word “I”, when spoken it had a positive up lifting meaning for us it was defined as , we, us, let me help, or I’ll do it for you, when used it meant for the betterment for us as a couple, it was an act of kindness.

Now as the years passed and we have gotten use to each other, involved in our own thing and doing the duties, that each of us took. Slowly something terrible happened we stopped talking to each other we never asked if either one of us needed help we left each other to their own device thinking that every thing was ok. I suspect that is when the meaning of that insidious letter changed, it morphed into something entirely different, now when I hear the word “I” I hear me; mine, my, no one else, alone. We had both changed a word that was positive to one that was negative.

As I was learning the new meaning of the word “I” when I hear Bobbie saying the I word,  it would set the hairs on the back of  my neck up, my ears would perk up and I get real attentive fast because she was attempting to do something by herself. This in itself is not a bad thing but Bobbie a very proud person who use to think that she could do everything by herself.  Left to her own devices Bobbie has a way of getting way over head in her projects and sometimes I was the last one to know about it or until it blew way out of proportion.

Now that we are in a DD relationship when I hear Bobbie say the letter I, especially when it’s suppose to involve us, I gently say WE are… instead of her saying I am going… If that doesn't work then it's a trip to the wood shed for a board meeting.  Life is so much better when it is WE as a team than when its I alone.