The Pen, the Sword, and All That..........

There are many variations on the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword." Playwright Bulwer-Lytton is most often credited with it as a line in a play in 1839, but actually the Greek poet Euripides is believed to have been the first to say it a long, long time ago (considering that he died in 406 B.C., it was a long time ago).

I have been pondering the post on acceptance I wrote a week ago and felt the need to write this one. Perhaps I could have said it differently, or thought it through more thoroughly. It was not my intent to open old wounds with my typewritten words. When I write, I very seldom think through as I'm writing; the words go from my brain into my hands and come out here on a page. I usually write very quickly, because I write "on the fly" as it were, and it wasn't until I was attacked in the comments that I stepped back to read, really read, what I had written.

It is interesting that the post was about acceptance. I am not writing this one to gain anyone's acceptance; rather to gain peace for myself about having hurt another person, however inadvertently. I still feel the same way about not needing anyone's approval, and it is for that very reason that I write this. It doesn't matter to me whether anyone thinks I'm weak or strong for writing this; the fact is that I hurt someone else unintentionally and that's not how I choose to live my life. Jesus is my model for meekness and humility, but sometimes human nature gets in the way.

I can still be strong enough to stand up for myself and accept myself regardless of what other people think of me, but I can also be strong enough to apologize if I don't feel peace about an issue, and so I sincerely apologize for the pain I caused another individual. It was most certainly not my intention.

No matter who was credited with saying it first, it is indeed true. The pen is mightier than the sword. Oh, and you might want to jot down that bit of trivia about the saying - you know, just in case you happen to get in the Cash Cab or something and it comes up!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled silly and optimistic blogging.