If You Only Had A Thousand Words

What language would you speak?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But what if you only had a thousand words left to say? Would you choose your words more carefully to draw the most beautiful picture your heart could convey?

I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive. Sometimes just three syllables are all that need to be heard. So what would you do with the rest of your words?

I believe generation Z would just send texts with emojis to try to cheat, or take long naps to deliver messages in their sleep. They would use smiley, winking, and kissing faces, to explain the YOLO life without voice or paper. Give them a thousand words and they will give you change. “That’s more than I need” is what they will claim.

I wonder how many people would try to find their voice at last. They would tell three hundred and thirty-three people to kiss their ass. I bet a lot of women would tell secrets about powerful men. The women’s tongues would be mightier than the poet’s formidable pen.

She’d declare a paradigm shift — a drift — away from survival of the fittest. You better get with it.

I imagine a few of the one percent billionaires would ask forgiveness for their greed, and for using up far more resources than a human being needs. The poor may hold onto their words because they recognize the value. Taking words out of their mouth, they will never allow you.

Black scholars would call out a thousand ancestors. They would name investors, protesters, professors, all of our predecessors — who spent their life holding back the oppressor — so one day our children could collectively fly. Remember the 1,667 words on which Martin died? He orated a dream that has kept me alive.

Personal empowerment is a contemporary requirement to turn a political tide. If you build a strong political party without changing the system, you’re just along for the ride.

We desensitize ourselves to the systemic oppression that harms human beings. We justify police killings, and the raping of women while asserting the superiority of Europeans.

Bombard us with violence and pain through sports aggression and superhero movies that destroy and destruct. Good guys win with vigilante hostility and always want to “you know what.”

Yep, I’d use a third of my words to address humanity’s plight. I would declare peace on earth with the last word I write.

I would remind my adult children and their friends to break some rules. Creating new standards for engagement is the game changer’s jewels.

I had four older brothers who constantly burdened my mother with their disobedience, and they taught me well. I continuously ignored my mother’s orders too, as if I were under their spell.

I applied to colleges we couldn’t afford, and prayed to “Mother God,” instead of praising “Our Lord”.

So, when my daughter says she doesn’t want children and isn’t looking for marriage, I commend her for breaking a tradition that needed a miscarriage.

I’d use a few words to describe my son’s beaded jewelry that he creates with great care. I raised beautiful human beings too full of life to despair.

Four hundred and seventy-three words left is enough to disappoint someone. I wish I had learned to do so sooner. That’s been the biggest takeaway for me as a “baby boomer.” We are learning to stop giving away our power to feel accepted. Irrational expectations will now be contested.

Holiday gatherings, who we love, career paths, and financial decisions are all ours to explore. When we don’t like the outcome we’ll simply decide once more. Permanence and convenience are not how we make choices. We are listening to our internal voices.

I learned the hard way that people who can’t stand to disappoint others will always be disappointed. As sure as it rains in Minneapolis, these words are anointed.

Losing someone to love yourself is more honorable than losing yourself to love someone else. Yeah, I’d use 150 of my last words to save myself.

I’d dispatch advice to anyone to make room in their life for discomfort, but try not to suffer. When life gets tough, you must get tougher. Develop the strength to accept what you cannot change, and courage to change what you can. Trust that universe is looking out for you even when you don’t know the plan.

Turn pain into purpose and purpose into passion. That’s your sweet spot for living. Every breath you take is a gift that God keeps giving.

No one gets to have a life absent of pain. It will beg for your attention like a spoiled child with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Don’t make your scars so invisible that you can not be seen. Vulnerability is in the human gene. We can not heal what we will not admit is injured. Heroes don’t heal because their mind is splintered. Boogieman haunts them alone at night. The reflection in the mirror is the hero’s biggest fight.

I’ve written five books and hundreds of poems. I’ve done more surveillance with the pen than an army of drones. I would sit in stillness until I’m compelled to rhyme. That’s been my answer time after time.

Life and writing are both about the process. If you focus on immediate outcomes, you’re playing checkers instead of chess. Stillness speaks, no matter how you listen. Follow the right path because life’s not an audition.

You get one chance to make life matter. In a thousand words, whose heart would you flatter?

When less than fifty words are all you have left, be sure to thank the people who have cherished you the best. Tenderness of your lips can make sweet sounds that last forever. The language you use should make the world better.

Then, when you have used your last word, your voice will still be heard.