The first in a series of spiritual words, folk tales, urban legends and cyber-country-art education by JR Johnson; staff writer, spiritual thinker and participant observer of the millenium, as it arrives in our global community.

Say It with Flowers

Five men stood in a semi- circle on the street corner. Street lamps poured down their gracious light covering the drugstore in the background. It was 11 am and the last train to Sleepyville made its accustomed run over the Urban Landscape. Breaking the silence a strident and youthful voice rang out: "Someone's going to die tonight."

In the three-second interval there went a circular motion outwards along with a glint that just as fast dissapeared. One of the shorter men buckled to his knees, his hand clutched to his throat. My passenger and I had observed this event , setting in my car, across the street. Immediately we sped away. The next day I learned that at that spot, a young man, his throat cut, had died the previous night.

I'm sharing this story with readers to put them on alert to the possible consequences of intemperate language. From my understanding on the topic, human beings project a varied array of mind-sets. Descriptions such as a loving, a Wonderland, a stoic, a hateful, a cynical, and a Hee Haw mental disposition only scratch the surface of possibilities. Seen in context then, we can be made or broken by our public utterances.

From the foregoing it's obvious that there are words and statements which should be red-flagged and not verbalized to others at all. That's to say, just as someone can say things to move you to anger, your own life could hang in the balance were you to say the wrong thi

Here recently in fact, while eating at a lunch counter, crossed words were noticed being exchanged between a food-server and a patron. In a slow, deliberate move, the worker came from around the counter to confront his agitator. Again words were exchanged which I could not hear. In one and a half seconds the younger man smashed his fist to the jaw of the senior. It was surrealistic in that the victim's light appeared to go out instantly, long before he crumpled to his knees backwards, his head smashing to the concrete floor, a halo of blood circling his head. The same evening after the paramedics had taken him away, I learned the senior had repeatedly called the young man a Punk.ng, to the wrong person, at the wrong time..

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I would be willing to bet the victim learned a valuable lesson from that experience. On that note, never likely will he address someone in that manner ever again. The same good sense can be adopted by the rest of us concerning words of ethnic put-down. Words such as Wop, Japs, White trash, Niggers, Chinks, Wet-backs, etc., when addressed to the wrong person, at the wrong time, could blow up in in our faces.

Another take on human perceptions came in my attending a committee hearing involving a member of the Clergy. The minister I will not name, for good reason, weighed in at about 210 lbs and stood 6-foot 4-inches tall. He proudly evoked this saying, "No one can make you mad unless you let them."

The only problem with that statement is its evident flaw. This was made clear to me during a meeting being chaired by the same Minister. Speaker after speaker stood up and gave their opinion on the measure being discussed. Then arrived my golden moment. Before I could give even a quarter of my wisdom, the Chairman told me that was enough and to sit down. You probably guessed it: I didn't let him, but he made me mad as Hell. The very next week, under similar circumstances I was abruptly cancelled out. Again I was pissed off, and in fact I told the Chairman in delicately chosen words that I didn't appreciate his evident disrespect. Going a step further, I never attended those meetings again.

Mr. Smart is another case in point. As head of an interaction class he too approached the subject of human relations, I thought in a cavalier manner. According to his point of view: no one can make you mad unless you let them. In my opinion, Mr. Smart would've served his students better by not sugar-coating how we differently react to the spoken word. That would have revealed the dual nature of words and the high respect they are due. Keep in mind some of these uses are to heal, to make others sick, mad, angry, happy, enthused, inspired, etc., etc. It can be added that, unlike machines, our responses to others are based upon a complex inter-connecting web of emotion intellect and sensitivity.

An incident from my youth underscores our myriad interpretation of words and how they are reacted to. In my 7th grade classroom one of the beauty queens openly dissed a fellow male student: "Hey Ron, why are you so ugly?" The guy rebutted and said: "Your Grandma looks like homemade sin." The pretty thing crashed and burned in a torrent of tears, her beautiful world temporarily demolished. Whatever moral can be extracted from these events could be aided by another; I think timely observation. Most of us live under the rainbow of personal narcissism. At any given time we think that we know exactly how we would respond to every situation. Yet the truth is, until the insult actually takes place it's difficult to altogether plan for that reality. Then again, there are many of us who undergo insults from others on a regular basis and shrug it off. It's also true what the Minister and Mr. Smart said too, to a certain degree. It's my suggestion the subject is really about respect. Therefore, whenever we address and respond to others, it's probably best we say it with roses.

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