Stretch your mind...

Words have power - as a blogger and social media participant I know that as well as anyone.  I talk openly about a number of topics on my blog and stay away from others... partly because I have the power to choose which words can be voiced by me in perpetuity... When I saw the Pondering topic this week, "Stretch", my first thought was exercise... but as I thought on it some more, I read my email and an article in the Toronto Star, both of which changed the direction of my post today...

In our everyday world, we have the opportunity to build people up or bring people down with the words and actions we choose... a few weeks ago, I read a newspaper article about a school that had transformed itself from one of the lowest performing schools in South Carolina to one that was competing for Excellence that contrasted with another school with similar demographics - the difference was a fundamental shift in ideology and WORDS...

Just today, as I read the Toronto Star, I found an article that asked young hockey players to stretch their minds and choose their words more carefully - by having them learn about and share an experience felt by a fellow hockey player who happened to also be gay - you can read that article here... it reminds me how the power of homophobic words can be used to belittle anyone, but strike at the heart of anyone who knows and loves someone who is gay...

It also reminds me of my friend's little girl who was forced to change schools at Christmas time because she was being bullied and taunted by classmates - words hurt her to the point where she was afraid to attend school... you can read more about her story here

In the same vein, next Thursday is an important day for helping to rid the world of another word that has become synonymous with so many hateful images - the R-Word... 

As the mom of a special needs child whose super power is Autism, I worry about the effect that words will have on his self-esteem as he grows up... right now he's in an environment that protects him from slurs and put downs, but as he grows, I know he will have to face bullying and taunting at some point - all children unfortunately do... but I want to do my part with my words to ask everyone to consider the power of their words carefully when they speak or write... especially about people who are different or differently abled than they are...

I honestly hope that we all stretch our minds today and remember that our words have power and we can choose to make that power positive or negative every time we open our mouths... or start to type... so lets stretch our minds and do something positive today!

This post is linked to Pondering with A Purpose