Rooted in worship

Barbara Windle considers how words can confuse

by Barbara Windle 29th June 2012

The power of words has been felt among human beings from the earliest times. Rumpelstiltskin was devastated to find that, simply by knowing his true name, the woman he hoped to control had reversed the power relationship between them. So we cannot be surprised to find that words still exercise over all of us, an influence whose emotional strength can seem disproportionate to their dictionary meaning.