Write Again . . . Such is the power of words

Published 4:15 pm Wednesday, August 14, 2024

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Today’s column, the first part, is about a song.

So. Let me share this, and at the end, perhaps, add a bit of explication. Or not.

Here’tis: “Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed. Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves your soul to bleed.

“Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need. I say love, it is a flower, and you, the only seed.”

Then comes the penultimate part.

“When the night has been too lonely, and the day has been too long. And you think that love is only for the lucky and strong.”

And now, the whole reason, the point of the song:

“Just remember, in the winter, far beneath the winter snows, lies the seed, that with the sun’s love, in the spring becomes the rose.”

Oh, yes. Shoot, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to call it almost, if not didactic, soul-touching. Surely, at least, a stirring of the emotions. Only those devoid of empathy would be completely unmoved.

Let me add, though, my frequently stated rhetorical interrogative: What do I know?

The answer, of course, is not much. Truth to tell, once one hobbles into geriatric territory the aging process is a one-way journey. Down, not up, the road; inexorably so.

ELOQUENT SIMPLICITY – In Garrett Graff’s simply superlative book “When the Sea Came Alive” he captured the power of language economy when he wrote about General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s choice of words to be delivered to the world after the formal surrender of Germany, ending the hostilities in the worst war in the history of humankind.

After the formal surrender was signed, General Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Lt. General Walter Bedell “Beetle” Smith, recalled: “The staff prepared various drafts of a victory message appropriate to the historic event. I tried one myself and, like all my associates, groped for resounding phrases as fitting accolades to the Great Crusade and indicative of our dedication to the great task just completed. General Eisenhower rejected them all, with thanks but without other comment, and wrote his own. It read: “The mission of the Allied force was fulfilled at 0241 local time, May 7, 1945’.”

Such is the unexcelled power of eloquent simplicity.