Use Your Words [Seer Crawl day 15]

Posted on September 4, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a detail of my painting, An Instrument Of Peace

A slow read through THE SEER. day 15. Something to Ponder. [all material from the book will appear in italics]:

I set down my stuff at my usual table at the coffeehouse and went to the counter and ordered a mocha. When I returned to my table I found this quote typed into the notes on my iPad:

“One must be leery of words because words turn into cages.” ~Viola Spolin

We tell our stories with words. That would seem obvious but it’s not. We tell the stories of our lives with our words. That would seem obvious, too, but it is not. Once, I went to a lecture given by a man who was born into a tribal community in South America. He said something that hit me like a ton of bricks: “You think putting a spell on someone is magic! You misunderstand the word ‘spell.’ A ‘spell’ is not mystical or hocus-pocus! No! That is to misunderstand the power of words! In my culture we understand that to tell a little girl that she is fat is to spell her forever. This is not hocus-pocus. This is the power of your words.”