Words

Do you ever experience days or moments when you wish you had a camera to capture that one instance? That time when the sun shone over the ocean, turning it into a sea of diamonds, or how about when your child made such an unexpected face that your heart beat an extra beat, because at that moment, you had never been more in love with someone? It's so disappointing right? You just wish you could revisit that time and feel that wonderful and exhilarating twist of emotions again. That's how I feel when I forget my notepad. I want to capture that moment, not with a picture that doesn't do the scene justice, but with words.

Words have the ability to bring so much emotion. A picture only captures the image. By looking at the image all those feelings come rushing back. Words on the other hand, can contain feelings, emotions, thoughts, and ideas. It has such presence.

There is nothing that bothers me more than the phrase: A picture is worth a thousand words. Why don't we all just look at picture books then? Because they aren't the same. Words hold so much more power than a photograph. Here is an example:

You have a picture of a little girl holding an empty ice-cream cone while the scoop of chocolate ice-cream melts on the ground. You can see that she's unhappy.

Now, if you were to write about that scene you could say how she's feeling. Her eyes burn as tears beg to be released. Her lip quivers uncontrollably. You can mention what she's thinking. She's thinking that she should have licked faster, should have stayed in the shade so that the sun hadn't melted her ice-cream so fast. She's wishing she had let Daddy lick some of it first just like he said. You can mention what her family is feeling. How her big sister is already moving in to share a scoop of her own ice-cream. You can tell how the Daddy wishes she had let him help. You can tell how the Mom feels her daughter's pain and how her mind is already racing, trying to find ways to make it up to her daughter. All of this can be shown using only the right words.

Do you see what I'm saying. A picture is not even close to being worth a thousand words. I would rather have ten words than I would a picture. I would rather read about the heart than see the person. I want to feel what the girl with the ice-cream is feeling. I don't just want to see the worlds pain, I want to feel it and later on, relieve it. I want to change the world, not through momentary thoughts, but with words that will move others (and myself) to action.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that the words make.

- Truman Capote, McCall's, November 1967.