Four Little Characters

What are letters? Simply put, letters are characters. These characters are assembled and made into words. After we assemble these characters into words, we can use our words to communicate with each other. Why can words be used to communicate with each other?  Because we give words meaning.  These days, words are thrown about very casually. Words like "inedible," "love" and "hate." "Hate." Four little characters, assembled into a word that can cause such pain. "Hate" is arguably the ugliest word in any language. 

In our home, the word "hate" is not allowed with very few exceptions; we say, 'I hate liver.' We say, 'I hate it when I bump my elbow.' We say, 'We hate the word, hate.' Never in our home, and (I mean NEVER in our home) do we use the word "hate" directed at a person. Okay, I lied, supremacist groups, any supremacist group, do not exactly fall into the "love" category in our home.

Last night, some crazy, deranged, hate-filled "human" opened fire into a crowd of concert-goers in Las Vegas and both killed and injured several hundred other humans. It is utterly impossible to comprehend. The type of hatred and misdirection that so consumes a "human" to blindly shoot into a crowd or drive a car into a crowd or drive a plane into a building or drop poison on a crowd is not something that can be shaped into something "understandable." I am typing characters and  forming words, but not able to understand (or believe) my own blog post...

When referring to the "human" who killed and hurt other humans last night, I have the word human in quotes. Do you want to know why? I have the word human in quotes, because there is not another word to use. Person does not work. Certainly man does not work. Perhaps "thing" works. A "thing" is an object without a name. Yes. I do believe that works. This "thing" opened fire into a crowd and killed and injured innocent people. "Human" as an adjective is "relating to or characteristic of humankind." No. These words do not describe "it." I was correct. "Thing" it is. 

I apologize for today's post, sincerely. If you have tears in your eyes, your stomach is churning and you feel ill as I do, that is a sign you are human and a good thing. Take a moment and brew some ginger or peppermint tea to settle your stomach and try to gain some perspective about how four little characters could possibly change the world. The four little characters to focus on are L-O-V-E.