The Power of words.

I was in the first grade of high school when a teacher wanted to start a series of poems. I was still young and let out a light sigh. The teacher became furious and asked me if I didn't know how important poems have been in history and how they had revolutionized things. I looked at him with a surprised face. No, I didn't know this. I hardly knew any poems. The other students looked somewhat surprised, both at the reaction of the teacher and at me. I understood that I had made a very stupid comment.

I started thinking about it. The teacher came up with poems, some of which I really liked. I started thinking about what words do to people and what their impact was. What happens when you tell a happy incident? I was reminded of what my youngest brother once told us at the table. His friend who came from Indonesia had noticed that the Dutch find it difficult to tolerate hot spices. He had wanted to impress him and once spread a whole layer of sambal on the peanut butter of his sandwich. 'Nice", he said and took a big bite. We had been very amused by this story.

Something quite different was the story told by a friend of mine. She walked with her husband, who was born in Indonesia, in the marketplace. Suddenly a man unknown to him scolded him, spat in his face and left both stunned.

I wondered what the impact of these humiliating events was. How was my girlfriend's husband supposed to deal with this incident and how did my girlfriend? Her husband is a very gentle person. He bakes an apple pie when I visit them and writes poems, a man also who passionately loves the beauty of flowers, but he is scolded and spat in his face by another because his origin is from Indonesia. I don't quite know what to do with it.

Margriet van Engelen