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It was like there were words, there was what was said, and there was what was meant – the distinct unity and otherness between thoughts, words, and the speaking of them. Sam wasn’t sure why this memory had surfaced, but here it was: “Words,” Vino had told him once, “are like the Holy Trinity. Three parts, one being, all equal, all interconnected, and yet all able to exist on their own.” Sam didn’t know why the memory came to mind, but he went with it. For some reason it seemed important. It, at the least, had the positive side effect of taking his mind off the weight. “Words are very much like the Holy Trinity,” Vino had said, “God, the Son, the Holy Spirit. With every word there is the Thought, the Word, and the Pronunciation. God is like the Thought. Thoughts are higher than the words, greater than the words, and yet they cannot be known without the word. Take love, for example, love is a beautiful word, but it is the idea that the word reveals to us that makes it so wonderful. Love is infinite and yet it is captured in those four letters – the four letters that make up the word, which is why, to us, words are essential. Words give substance to ideas, thoughts, and feelings. They make the intangible, tangible. We can know love because we have the word for it. We can also express love for the same reason. That expression is the Spirit of the Word, the Word Spoken. Every word has a voice, a sound attached to it whereby it can be communicated. Thoughts and words become powerful when they are spoken. However, the power comes not from the sounding. You can say gobbledygook ten thousand times at the top of your lungs and nothing will happen. But you can whisper I love you and kingdoms will fall, mountains will crumble; you say I love you and life will never be the same; the history of the world can change course on a phrase like that. It’s the meaning within the word spoken that constitutes its power. So be cautious with what you say, and careful with what you don’t. For better or worse, once a word is spoken, it is impossible to erase.”