Word Inheritances

The power of words is often considered dichotomously – ‘for good or for ill’ – yet the impact of words is frequently neither black-and-white nor easily assessed. Timing and tone matter: words that are appropriate at certain points and in some situations can have the opposite effect when mistimed or misused. Meanings change with use and audiences: the same word can mean one thing for an older generation and the opposite for younger generations – ‘wicked’ is a current example.

Circumstances and perspectives matter too. Tearing down and destroying are usually perceived as negative actions – and very often they are. But there are times when they are necessary, even good: when what is, or what has gone before, has become unhelpful or outlasted its usefulness; when tearing down overcomes evil; or, when changing perspectives requires circumstances, facts, or needs to be reviewed and/or reprioritised.

An extended life example may help here. In my very early childhood, I lived in a newly developing housing estate. Many young marrieds who bought land could not immediately afford a house, so they built large garages fitted with running water and kitchenettes. (There were few plumbed toilets; the suburb did not yet have sewer lines.) These young marrieds became ‘owner-builders’ who lived in their garages as they self-built their homes over a year or two or three...

For these couples, their garage was a wonderful thing. It was simultaneously:

• a money-saving strategy – precluding renting, minimising labour costs, and enabling easy site access

• a means of privacy – obviating the need to live with parents or grandparents

• an investment in the future – adding future value to their properties and providing addition living space as children multiplied

• a blessing for others – being subsequently offered to other young couples or family members so they too could ‘get on their feet’.

The garages were often also symbols of things that were not so easily recognised. They represented love and generosity, having frequently been built with money given as wedding presents or from a deceased grandparent’s bequest. They offered a hope and a future that otherwise could not have been afforded. They taught lessons about ‘how to get on in life’ and enabled inheritances for future generations.

Living in a garage for extended periods of time could be problematic, challenging. The car was left in the open air and unprotected from the harsh Australian sun. The garages were often hot in summer and cold in winter. Living in confined spaces sometimes created tensions, especially when children came along.

A small number of garages have maintained their usefulness for more than fifty years now. Most no longer exist. Some have been incorporated into the main home as family rooms or ‘attached’ garages: some were long ago turned into garden sheds. Many were torn down either to enlarge gardens or to enable the large blocks on which they were built to be subdivided into smaller blocks for resale at a profit.

Others were simply neglected. Falling into disrepair, they became relics; skeletal buildings covered with overgrown vines and the leaf litter of many years. Still others, though functioning excellently as garages and storage spaces, needed to be torn down after being found to have been built with materials that contained asbestos.

How is this reminiscence relevant to today’s topic? 

Well, words are like those garages. They ‘house’ good and evil, sometimes simultaneously – even seemingly insignificant ‘throwaway’ words. They affect the emotional contexts in which we live, influence the way we see ourselves, and mould memories that we bring from the past into our present. Like those garages, our words may be easily discarded and torn down; conversely, their impact may be complex, double-edged, long-lived. Their echoes can reverberate through generations: influencing our primary role models, patterning our mindsets and outlooks, generating repetitive family dynamics, and shaping our spiritual inheritances.

How, why, and when we use words matter, not just for us, but for all generations who experience their ongoing influence. Typing this reminds me of the words of the wise king and teacher in Ecclesiastes 3:1–8*:

There is a time for everything,
  and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

For 3,000 years, these famous words have been bequeathing wisdom. They guide us towards living well regardless of times and circumstances: whether we are loving, reacting, responding, repenting, forgiving, choosing, designing, assessing, speaking, or writing. 

The passage has equal relevance when we substitute ‘words’ for the concept of time. 

There are words for everything,
  and a season for every word under the heavens:

words that give life and words that induce death,

words that plant and words that uproot,

words that kill and words that heal,
words that tear down and words that build up,
words for weeping and words when laughing,

words for mourning and words for dancing,
words that scatter and words that gather,
words when embracing and words when refraining from embracing,
words prompting action and words for ceasing,
words to keep and words to throw away,
words that tear and words that mend,
words that should not be spoken and words that must be said,
words that bring love and words that bring hate,
words for war and words for peace.

May both versions of the passage inform our own attitudes, actions, and words so that we, too, bequeath enduring legacies that influence our family, friends, communities, and world for the better.

* Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, New International (Bible) Version, Hodder & Stoughton, United Kingdom, 2011.