The Power of Verbal Communication
We can’t help but marvel at the power of verbal communication. Words are our symbolic vehicle for creating and exchanging meanings, performing actions, and forging relationships. We use language to name all that surrounds us, and in turn, the names we have created shape how we think and feel about these things.
But for most of us, the power of language is intensely personal. Call to mind the most important relationship events in your life. When you do, you’ll likely find they were not merely accompanied by verbal communication but were defined and created through it. Perhaps it was the first time you said “I love you” to a partner or posed the heart-stopping query “Will you marry me?” Maybe it was a doctor declaring “It’s a boy!” “It’s a girl!” “It’s twins!” Or perhaps the relational events that float upward into memory are sadder in nature, the words bitter remnants you wish you could forget: “I don’t love you anymore”; “I never want to see you again”; “I’m sorry, but the prognosis is grim.”
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“With great power comes great responsibility,” as the saying goes, and our power to shape and use verbal communication is no different. The words we exchange profoundly affect not only our interpersonal communication and relationships but also those of others. The responsibility we bear because of this power is to communicate cooperatively.
POSTSCRIPT
At the time that General George Washington ordered his officers to read aloud the words of Thomas Paine to their troops, the war to create the United States appeared lost. Washington, along with his officers and soldiers, seemed doomed to certain death. But as they stood on the icy shore of the Delaware River, this simple act of verbal communication—“These are the times that try men’s souls . . . ”—transformed the mood of the moment. Fatigued men’s spirits were uplifted, and the soldiers set out across a seemingly impassable river to triumph in a mission that just a few hours earlier had seemed hopeless.
What words have helped you ford the raging rivers of your life? How have you used verbal communication to inspire others to face their own daunting personal and interpersonal challenges?
More than 200 years ago, a disheartened general borrowed the words of a patriot to raise his soldiers’ spirits. In so doing, he created the first link in a chain of events that led to the creation of a country. Now, centuries later, the power of verbal communication to inspire, uplift, embolden, and create is still available to each of us.