Words, Words, Words

I love words. I'm not even going to tell you how much I love words, because then you'll think I'm a complete geek (you don't already, do you? Oh, well. I don't mind :) I love finding just the right word. I love big words and little words.

That's why I love these books. They're all about words.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

The Meaning of Tingo: and Other Extraordinary Words From Around the World by Adam Jacot de Boinod

Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language For Fun and Spite by Jane Casagrande

Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable (A Novel In Letters) by Mark Dunn

I love it when my daughter asks me what a word means, and even better when we both have to look it up in the dictionary. I love how my son plays with words - oh, that kid is hilarious, I can only imagine what he'll come up with as his vocabulary expands.

I love this quote from the liner notes of Natalie Merchant's newest album "Leave Your Sleep" about why she started putting poetry to music for her daughter:

"I tried to show her that speech could be the most delightful toy in her possession and that her mother tongue is rich with musical rhythms and rhymes."

I love how words can be so powerful - they can heal as well as hurt. Words can give life to our experience. Think about the best (or worst ... no, no, actually, just think about the best) thing anyone ever said to you, and how it still makes you feel. It's like this poem for me. It's a blessing every time I read it.