keith

There exists in every heart an undercurrent; that malicious tow toward wickedness, which awakens in the formative years as manifestations of cruelty toward classmates, lovers, parents. We are led through bitter experience to a realization of the sharpness of words, the ways in which the clever use them to conceal, to exploit, to wound, and which the dull may use to blunt, and to bludgeon. It is only their effects, viewed through hindsight's painful clarity, which leads to the transcendence of kindness - the seemingly commonsensical epiphany echoed in the adage that flies are more easily caught with honey than with vinegar.

Even so, the most benevolent soul is girded still with the sword of the tongue, hung at the belt like imperial decoration, but able still to maim long after the wielding arm has grown feeble. Words are the clasps that fasten the cloak of civilization about the shoulders of humanity, and like a dagger, the smallest may be used either to cleave the bread that sustains us, or pierce the tender meat of the heart. Words are naught but a tool, then, of a dual nature, a beast of the wild tamed within the cage of our teeth, but never domesticated.

In my case the trouble began with merely three: "I love you." Simple phrase, that, with staggering implications. "I", the essence of my being, the self-awareness by which I exist, "love", the promise implied of devotion everlasting, "you", the sum of perception and reality.

-Keith Daniels 6/20/03 "Unfinished"