Words Have an Impact

Words have an impact in print and online.

I received an email this morning from an unknown person in another state. I regularly receive email from people I do not know, but generally they are trying to sell me prescription drugs from Canada or they have tips about my love life that are essential to my happiness and filled with misspelled words.

Sometimes, though, the emails are from people who felt an overwhelming need to share their thoughts with a stranger. Most of these people are the type that if we met in public, I’d probably clutch the mace in my pocket and cross the street to avoid. But every so often, I get an out-of-the-blue thank you that makes me smile.

See, the thing is I know that words have an impact. I try to be very careful with the words that I use. One day last year, I wrote a blog in which I was talking about how my Sacramento real estate business had mushroomed over the years. I said something like my business had exploded like 1,000 percent, and I got slapped with a fine by the Sacramento Board of REALTORS. I didn’t mean to give a false impression, it was a figure of speech. Who in a million years would have thought that was a true statement?

But it tells me that people are paying attention to words. Word have an impact. Maybe they’re not my friends and the type who would jab a knife into my tires in the parking lot if nobody was looking, but all the same, it has taught me a lesson to be more careful with my words.

This morning the email I received said this:  I just wanted to say thank you for your frequent use of language that acknowledges the diversity of relationships that home-buying couples have and that not all important functions in the world are performed just by men.

Somebody noticed. That email made my day.

While Elizabeth is in Cuba, we revisit older blogs published elsewhere.