“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”
-Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society

The thing about art is that it varies amongst a broad spectrum of creativity and imagination. Music, dance, film, architecture, drawing, painting, cooking, photography, sculpture, literature; the list is never ending. The truth is, art provides the means for society to survive. It teaches us how to love, how to deal with heartbreak, how to live, how to grieve, but more importantly, how to feel.

Chemistry, biology, math: all subjects that end in a specific answer. You can work for days on a math problem and ultimately find the answer. Words are different. One can spend hours, days, or even months writing a single paragraph or a scene to a play and then still manage to press that delete button just because the words don't necessarily flow in the right way

But here is the ultimate truth about words: they can tear a person apart. They can destroy the one making the words, and they can destroy the one receiving them.

Authors are amongst the highest rate of those that suffer from depression and alcoholism. Hemingway once referred the illness of depression to "The Writer's Reward" because it causes a writer to think a lot, and those that think a lot create deeper and more meaningful words. Authors tend to continually make associations between the external world and their internal experiences and memories, therefore causing someone to rehash old memories and cause more pain.

On the other hand, there is a popular children's rhyme that says:

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

This phrase teaches children from a young age that physical injury is worse than emotional distress. Words can mentally destroy a person if they are given the right power. Most friendships end with confrontation solely because words are said our of emotion. How many times has the phrase "I hate you" ended a friendship? Too many to count. That's the thing about words, three simple words can be strung together to ultimately break a person's heart.

The phrase should go more like this:

"Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.

It is prevalent in today's society to remember that words have the power to change a life. From simply giving a friend a pep talk, to writing an award winning novel, to telling someone that she is ugly: words can last a lifetime.

No matter what anyone says, words and ideas have the potential to change the world for better and for worse.