Everybody's heard on the radio Fight Song, by Rachel Platten. It's been on once every hour recently. The first stanza goes something like this"Like a small boat / On the ocean / Sending big waves / Into motion / Like how a single word / Can make a heart open / I might only have one match / But I can make an explosion". I really like these first lines. The part about opening someone's heart got me thinking. What one word can open someone's heart? How can one word have that much power? So, I compiled a short list of words that I felt applied and thought I'd share them.
Yes. This word is used in so many ways. It can answer "Will you marry me?" but also "Do you want fries with that?" The former is certainly the context I am referring to. An answer of yes to that question--one that requires love, planning, and courage--could reaffirm to someone that they were right to let this person into their life. Similarly, a journey ending in the asking of this question could begin with someone answering yes to "Will you go out with me?" in high school or college. This second question requires the same amount of courage as the first not because its effect is permanent but because you can't be sure of the answer. When asking someone to marry you, you can assume that the odds are in favor of them saying yes. With asking someone on a date, its a wild card. Both, however, give rise to a welling of warmth on both parts when the answer is yes.
Love. This one is probably the most obvious. "I love you" is meaningful in so many situations. Yes, I say it to dogs and cats that I've just met because they're cute. Yes, I also say it to my really good friends and family. It is a promise exchanged between two individuals as an affirmation of their feelings, of the mix of chemicals in their brains aligning (if you want to be scientific). My best friend and I tell each other this each night before we go to sleep, but I'll also say it to my dog through laughter when we're playing in the garden or in the front room. It has so many uses and has been used through the ages, all with one meaning stretching across the years and continents. It's a promise to always be there, to never let the other fall, to stay by each other's sides, to...well, love them.
Trust. This seems to be underestimated, I feel. Telling someone "I trust you" or hearing someone say it to you can be as powerful as being told or saying "I love you." However, there are different levels of trust. If we were to make a scale of the degrees of trust from one to ten, it might look something like this.
One - I trust you to toss this in the bin.
Two - I trust you with my possessions.
Three - I trust you to house-sit.
Four - I trust you to make me laugh.
Five - I trust you take care of my pets.
Six - I trust you to help me.
Seven - I trust you to understand.
Eight - I trust you to keep my secrets.
Nine - I trust you with my life.
Ten - I trust you with my heart.
This is a very vague scale and one that may only apply to me. I feel that your heart is something that can only be given when there is immense trust between two people. Your life, of course, is very important and you know that someone is highly trusted when someone says that they trust them with their life. Secrets, as well, are kept to oneself unless there is a lot of faith in the other party. The last one I'll touch on is seven, understanding. Especially with issues of the LGBTQ+ community, such as coming out, understanding requires a lot of trust because the secret wouldn't be told unless the person telling it had faith that they would be understood. A friend of mine came out only to a few people and only after months of being in the closet with her girlfriend. It was an amazing feeling to know that I was trusted enough to be told.
Always. This, again, is a word--a promise--that I feel is underestimated. It is logically and logistically next to, or actually, impossible, and yet still the promise is made. When someone says "I'll always be with you" or "I'll always be here for you", it's incredible. In that moment, you don't care that it doesn't make logical sense. You don't care that always is an impossible dream. You are just so warmed and so happy about the fact that the other person loves you enough to want to spend their life at your side. And such a promise doesn't have to be romantic. I have a really good friend, so good that we're almost siblings, and if one of us is going through a tough spot then we make sure that the other remembers that we'll always be there for each other no matter what. That's how much this promise means.
... This last one is something that not everyone will understand at first, but everyone can relate to. It's that one thing that you've only told a few people or that one thing that someone says that means the world to you. For those of you who're Whovians, you'll know that this, for the Doctor, is his real name. In the David Tenant two-parter "Silence in the Library", River Song gains his trust by whispering his name in his ear. Immediately, she had his complete and unquestioned trust because he knew that he would only tell someone his name if he was dying or if he trusted or loved them unconditionally. For someone else--someone not fictional--this could be anything from being told "never", as in "I'll never leave/betray you" all the way to something simple like a waiter or barista remembering their order at their local coffee shop or cafe.
This is one of the reasons I love listening to this song. Not only does it have an actual tune, unlike a lot of music that has been coming out of late, but the lyrics provoke thought. This is the kind of music we need more of in our generation and these are the kinds of thoughts we need to think.
