I’m near to drowning in words.

It’s been this way for days now; like swimming against an undercurrent of meaningless and banal words on one level, insidious and deceptive words on another. Politics. Meanwhile, the shoreline of sanity and stability I try to reach grows more distant.

So I stop reading, watching or listening to the news, thinking this might help. As a result, I have to be told by a friend about Hurricane Matthew before realizing my son and his family, who live in Savannah, Georgia, may be in danger. (They rode out the storm, and all is well.)

Have you ever felt so inundated by words you could no longer keep up?

Anyway, I’ve returned to the real world after my brief word sabbatical, just in time to learn the most recent words my country’s presidential candidates have uttered in the past, are saying now, or are in the process of denying.

One candidate is so casual with code words and conversations unsecured, that Homeland Security has to be in wonderment over the possibility this person may be elected the next president.

The other candidate has proven so egregious and offensive in conversation that his children must be asking, “Daddy, did you actually say that? Really?”

Wait. There are at least two others running for president, aren’t there? What were their names again?

Do I sound too judgmental? Sorry. Please forgive me. I’m like anyone else when it comes to words. My words, just the same as the words of kings and presidents, once spoken can only be forgiven, not forgotten.

Words possess great power. We experience a constant flow of them every day; words intended to flatter us, manipulate us, influence us, change us. The oft quoted but little known, Pearl Strachan Hurd, once said, “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.”

And Jesus said it best and clearest of all. “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” ~ Matthew 12:34.

How true. So what else can I say? Our presidential candidates may be forgiven for carelessness, self-centeredness, and egregiousness when it comes to their words (that is if they feel the need of true repentance and of being forgiven). It can be for them the same way I find forgiveness for mine. This is my prayer. For we are about to vote into the highest and most powerful office in our nation, whoever he or she may be, someone who has, until now, clearly demonstrated the misuse and abuse of one of humankind’s greatest resources and most powerful weapons.

Words.

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