G is for WORDS?

 "With words one man can make another blessed, or drive him to despair;

by words the teacher transfers his knowledge to the pupil; by words the speaker sweeps his audience with him and determines its judgments and decisions.

 Words call forth effects and are the universal means of influencing human beings.”
- Sigmund Freud

The shadows darkened around my table at Meilori's as Freud leaned towards me in his chair.  

"We come now to the letter G.  What occurs to you?"

"I think Words."

He straightened in his chair.  "Words?  At the letter G?"

"Well, actually I thought of GATE.  And words are the gate through which we enter the mind of those around us.  


With words we touch the thoughts of those with whom we wish to communicate, right?"

"Hfmmf."

I sighed,
"You loved literature and read William Shakespeare throughout your life.  


It's even been suggested that your understanding of human psychology was derived from his plays. 

So you know that words are indeed the gateway to the human psyche."


His eyes seemed to sink into his face.  

"Suggestions say more about the person making them than of the person who is their target." 

He waved his hand absently as if to chase away gnats.  "An astute observer does not need to suggest.  Human beings can keep no secrets."


He rolled his cigar in his fingers.

"They reveal their innermost selves with their clothes, with their twitches, with their unconscious mannerisms.  


Whatever humans do, they are expressing things about themselves to people who have eyes to see and ears to hear."


Freud snorted, "That is your true gateway, young man, and words are only a minor part of the whole of it." 

I started as another ghost sat down beside me.  

C.S. Lewis, a warm smile on his face.  


The smile on Freud's face, however, dropped like a lead weight.

From the distant poker table, Mark Twain chuckled, "This is going to be good."

"Good" wasn't exactly the word that occurred to me.