just words

"recently I was driving through Los Angeles, and suddenly I had the strange sensation of driving through a huge dictionary. wherever I looked there were words trying to take my eyes from the road. they said, 'use me, take me, buy me, drink me, smell me, touch me, kiss me, sleep with me.' in such a world who can maintain respect for words? all this to suggest that words, my own included, have lost their creative power. their limitless multiplication has made us love confidence in words and caused us to think, more often than not, 'they are just words.'" -Henri Nouwen