What's Yours is Mine

Words, take a rest

Have you ever thought about your words?

Have you ever thought about who has said your words before?

Here's a beautiful thought. Your words have already been spoken. Your words have been spoken by other people, before you. Your words are not your words.

Where have your words been before your mouth? Before your mind?

What you say, either is or is going to be uttered again and again. From many mouths. To many ears. It's going to be uttered by a friend to another friend. A teacher to a student. A student to a teacher. A lover to their object of infatuation. A stranger to another stranger.

Sonder.

Your words are recycled. They are going to be recycled after you use them.

This may sound a bit boring, as everything that's going to be said has already said. But think about it a bit deeper. All of these things that have had a profound impact on your life-that grain of wisdom-has been handed down to you from another person. And that person received it from another. And another. And so on.

You're connected with millions of people, alive or dead, and you don't even know it. You're encased, cocooned, caressed in this network of invisible linkages. The words of a child to a parent a century ago has somehow wormed its way into your life. It has shaped your identity and memories in unimaginable waves. It's the ultimate butterfly effect.

A stranger from a millennium ago is suddenly whispering words of comfort in your ear. A young woman is hurling insults at you from across the room, across time. Your words that you spoke last night-they too will travel far and wide. Along the way, your words may spark romance, it may begin the end of a relationship. It could cause someone to make a poor life decision. It could be brushed off as chatter.

Its importance is not going to be equal to everyone, but it's going to be tremendously life-changing to some.

Value the words that are spoken to you. Appreciate them and let them rest in your mind for a bit. They have an endless journey ahead of them and that brief moment of appreciation and respite in your mind is all the rest that they're going to get. Words, thoughts, are constantly leaping from one mind to the next. Some get tired and land on the ground instead of on another's ear. They'll rest for a bit. Maybe a bit longer than just a bit. Then they'll pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and jump back into the cycle.

So what is creativity? What is genuinely new? What is truly yours?