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DEATH and LIFE ARE IN THE POWER of the TONGUE
(Proverbs 18:21)

I'm sorry.
I didn't mean it.
I take it back.
Strike it from the record.

What is as irreversible as murder, violates its victims more than theft, is as deadly as an epidemic? And is a lot closer to you than you want to think?

Gossip, slander, and thoughtless speech. Gossip is a million dollar industry in our country today. We tend to think of it as a sport, harmless and fun. After all, it's only words.

The Talmud sees it differently (baba mezia 58B). Which is worse, it asks, to steal from someone or to speak ill of someone? To defraud a person or to humiliate him?

Answer: Property can be restored, but the damage done to the person can never be undone.
In fact, Jewish condition compares slander and humiliation with murder: The destruction is irreparable and enduring.

You can't take it back.
What you say about each other is terribly powerful:
Words have a long, long half life, and they can destroy in unseen, unhealable ways.

Our words are a footprint we leave for the world. What will they reveal about the way we treat our children, our parents, our friends, students, co-workers, employees? How we treat ourselves?

Perhaps none of us will find a cure for cancer, or feed the world's homeless or bring about world peace. But nearly every day we find ourselves with someone's reputation or sense of worth in our hands.

We can improve our world in a powerful, pervasive way; we can act as though our words have the power of life and death. They do.

The above appeared in a 1988 edition of The Wall Street Journal (the exact date is unknown).

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needs & wants

feelings & wants

facts & feelings

Know and separate these and you have the secret to success.

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