Challenge #02225-F035: That They May See

Words cut deeper than any weapon ever could. Thankfully, they also heal better than any medication. -- Anon Guest

Everyone has words they hate having flung at them. Slurs, for instance. For the linguists among us, it may be fascinating to analyse how the words we choose to hurt others with show how those who arm evaluate those they see as less. However, those words still hurt. Others may choose to glide past them. Having never had such words used against them, they fail to believe how they can be harmful.

Hag stones are made by the steady and repetitious dripping of water on a single stone. One drop alone doesn't make a hole, but rather thousands. A marching brigade of soldiers can make a bridge collapse where one soldier marching alone would never have caused harm. A single grain of arsenic may be a tonic, but a certain amount can kill. The devil is in the dosage...

Individually, analytically, a single word has no weight. It has no sharpness. It cannot possibly hurt. Yet they do. Flung endlessly like grains of sand against the stone of one's soul, they can wear a being down and cause cracks or even collapse. Should you doubt, pick a word you personally find insulting to you and devise a means to have it flung at you for days. Weeks. Years. See how much it hurts after experiencing the constant abrasions of its passing. Or, you could take another path.

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