Words

Near the tail end of Harry Potter's cinematic journey, Dumbledore tells him "Words are... our most inexhaustible source of magic." I love that. It's like everything I believe about language -- the beauty and the power of words -- in a perfect soundbite. I have never ceased to be amazed at words; what they can do, what they can evoke, how they feel when they're put together well. Words, and the using of them, are magic.

This was brought powerfully home in a very personal way a couple of days ago. I've recently made a new friend, and we text, very casually; generally in the "Hi, have a good day" vein. A couple days ago, he said that, and followed it up with, "How are you?" This was new. This was the invitation to a conversation. This was care and concern. Three words. Simple, often throw-away words. These were sincere, though. I could tell. And let me tell you, they bloomed for me. I so needed them. In that minute, I needed to know that someone cared how I was doing. Beyond the implied invitation to take our friendship just a little deeper, which I value, there was the awareness of someone giving a damn about me, if only for a moment. I love poetry; I celebrate it. I devour books. I listen intently to songs to really hear the lyrics. I like to talk about language and how it works, and why it works; I like to write. I'm a little intense about words. But those words? Those small words made my day. Helped my heart.Were magic.