What is Middle Words?
The first of many but hopefully not the last...
This site is about words and their power. It’s about trying to use words powerfully.
The thrill of raising a child includes their first steps, first taste of veggies, their first tooth. Their first words. And they never stop chattering from there. At first, they are so innocent and sincere. But given some time and siblings, they’ll talk back. Less thrilling. Then there are those “famous” last words.
Life is bookended between our first and last utterances. Words are life. Language and words become the stuff of life. Tasks don’t get done. Decisions don’t get made. Love is not forged without words. Actions indeed show love, but words express love in a myriad of ways just as well.
Depending on who you are and where you live, you may likely utter between 6,000-16,000 words a day. When you shave off repetitions and such, estimates calculate that we utter on average about 800 meaningful words per day. The Oxford English Dictionary has over 170,000 unique entries which is one of the highest in the world, but who’s counting, right? Such official numbers don’t even count the words that don’t make it into a dictionary. At the average rate of 150 words per minute, we will utter between 12-28 single-spaced pages per day. All of which read out loud would take 1-2 hours. Who is figuring all this out? I don’t know, but the internet is a wonderful thing! And the math or science behind such simple data can’t be that hard to figure out.
Let’s assume for the sake of this foundational article that we’re in the ballpark. This means that we say alot of things in a given lifespan. Words name realities, declare wars and write nations into existence. They are the last frontier to the ineffable. Yet so much of what we speak is mundane. Now, in the world we live in, more people have more platforms to transmit their words. We are inundated with word clouds. What are we to make of the exponential democratization of communication?
Surely the ancient who wrote “of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Qohelet in Ecclesiastes 12:12) not only foresaw Gutenberg’s printing press but also satellites, fiber optic cables and wireless fidelity (wi-fi). Now, everyone can be a photographer and writer. We all have the power of influence in our pockets. But should we? Does this mean that one such as I should start a Substack page adding to the cacophony of other denizens in the Republic of Social Media?
I’ve told myself ‘no’ for a long time. But, I feel an urgency to employ the pen’s power now in the middle of my life to help others live life and prepare for what’s after. My endeavor to write for the courts of public opinion is even more deeply driven by the conviction that my words supremely matter before another kind of court. It is the one that Jesus of Nazareth referred to in Matthew 12:36-37: “I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” I don’t have grandiose hopes of changing divine judgments or altering eternal outcomes, but I do wish to influence you for eternity because eternity matters. We will all die and then eventually there will be a Great Reckoning.
So, if you’re getting the sense that I’m religious; well, I’m guilty as charged. And if you’re tempted to click away and never return, thank you for reading thus far. But please understand that I’m not merely trying to throw my hat in the ring for religious editor on Substack. Nor will Middle Words be a site dedicated to bamboozling my readers with cheap religious hacks, self-help or inspirational memes. There are plenty of those out there, and I cannot add to or exceed their value.
Devotees to Christian faith (I am one, by the way) are often described as being so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly good. There is truth to that quip as much as there’s truth to its opposite: some are so earthly minded, they’re of no heavenly good. Such sound like any religious faith wouldn’t even weigh heavily in their worldview much at all. Fair.
But, hopefully Middle Words succeeds in being so heavenly-minded that it’s of great (or decently) earthly good. Don’t misunderstand, I won’t be trafficking in astronomy or near-death experiences on this site (as amusing as that sounds). As author Randy Alcorn has said, I hope to “live for the line [eternal life] and not just the dot [this life].”
I hope to write in such a way that’s humanizing and reasoned. I want you to know me. So, hopefully this will be real without the nauseating navel-gazing of our expressively self-centered age. This will be part memoir (and muse). And as such, it will often be serious (but also absurd). I hope Middle Words will be imaginative about the mundane because the mundane matters for the line. You may at times think Middle Words to be centrist; at other times, extreme. Hopefully, always reasonable and charitable towards you, my readers. But, if this site can provide you some centering, a refuge between the salvos of friendly or enemy fire or just the daily fires you’re putting out in life, I will have succeeded with Middle Words.
Indulge me, in conclusion, to quote something from King Solomon’s legacy again because I don’t think anything more apropos in describing the endeavor of Middle Words: “The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:10). Dear reader, I wish—and pray— that you will keep coming back to Middle Words for truth and delight!