March 29, 2006
by Lonnie D. Story

Yes, I said a "word" at war, not a world at war.  However, one is not far from the other.  Our world, not just as an American society, but the world, as a whole, has been developed by words.  Under the cover and umbrella of language, words have shaped the past, present and future of mankind.  The Biblical example of Babylon, from hence we get the term to "Babble on" was derived, exemplifies the importance, significance and foundational stone of a word's value.  In the Tower of Babel experience, it was the language, the word, that was the Pandora's box to higher knowledge and understanding and equally, the demise.

As then, the goal to reach the apex of enlightenment, so be it today with mass communications at a level unprecedented.  But just so has the confounding of language by Divine intervention in the story of the Tower of Babel, so goes the necrosis of our present day valuation of words.  They have become toys. Things to be played with.  Things to decipher by clouds of intellectual play as old as mankind, itself.  White lies, little lies, small truths, simple truth, truth as a whole in substance, the bulk of the meaning, the overall weight of truth, etc.  I could go ad infinitum, and therein lies the sadness of it all.  We all know this to be true.  Any "average person" any where in the world, for the most parts, can relate to the gist of "gray" truth.

I think one of the most important messages I am trying to achieve in this musing, is the message that there actually was a time in history when a "word" was a WORD, a bond of sorts that contracts, today, are made of.  "A declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified.  A legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act. A reason to expect something." Webster.

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Actually, any first year law student, or otherwise fairly-educated person, will tell you that giving one's word, example: "I give you my word", is an enforceable contract stronger than the reduction to writing.  If I said it, I meant it.  That was simple.  But uniquely profound by today's standards, things have changed.  I think one of the sparking points for my dissertation on the subject, came from my own personal familial experience.  In some foreign vein of thought, it crossed my mind that out of all my contemporaries, immediate family and friends, the first and practically only person I could think of was my own stepfather for example and proof of evidence to the transcended decay of honor amongst ourselves.  The proof?  The evidence?  That there actually, literally and truly existed a time when a man would stick his hand out and say "You have my word."  This was an eye-to-eye, mind-to-mind, word-to-word contract, sealed with a handshake.  It, basically, takes an Eighty year old man to reminisce of a time when this "contract" lasted a life-time, today, if you didn't "sign it" you are not bound to it.  In Papa's day, only decades ago, if your hands touched, ink couldn't create a better stain.  I won't elaborate here, but the handshake, in itself was significant, signifying that there was no weapon of harm in hand and thus one could be trusted.

So where did we go wrong?  Was it as Shakespeare said "kill all the lawyers?"  No, I don't think so.  I would have to say revise it and say "kill all the liars."  Yes, we all are guilty of it, we do lie and we don't all deserve the "death sentence."  However, we have compromised as a society.  To the point that, for some, lying has become an art.  A black art. "White lies" is the biggest tool plied in the trade of self-service.  Compromise.  Compromise of integrity and self-respect.

As I mentioned above, it is an awakening thought that the only person in my immediate family is my stepfather aged nearly 81 years that can honestly, before God, say that, in most of his life, business was done on a handshake and one's given, sincere word, a bond better than the contract of Microsoft, Enron, Texaco, Walmart or the Veteran's Administration, to name a few.  When "Papa," my stepfather, looks you in the eye and extends his hand, it is an experience that will transport you and transcend time back to the depression years of America.  You will behold the experience of things that are only in history books now.  When a man would look into, not at, another man, and say you have my Word.  A bond, a contract, a guarantee backed by a man's backbone and life's blood in honor.  If this standard were a litmus test for our politicians and governmental representatives of today, from city to national level, I am curious, would the fallout leave a single one percent survivability?  Maybe that is a novel idea to institute into the standards for a bill of ethics.  Can you give your word as your bond, back it with your blood, your life and your reputation?  Pass or fail.  Truly, our words have become, more than ever in human history, words at war.

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Lonnie D. Story [send him email] is the author of "The Meeting of Anni Adams" and is working on "Without A Shot Fired: The Dustin Brim Story"  Write Mr Lonnie D. Story at 1339 Center Avenue, Holy Hill, FL 32117.