“Once we get away from the idea that the purpose in reading and writing is to exchange information, then we may discover the enchantment power of letters and books, and then, too, we may have an entirely different appreciation for all the paraphernalia of books and writing—libraries, bookstores, pens, computers, paper, illustration, typography, calligraphy, bindings, and scripts.  We might become magicians of the page, learning both how to enchant others and how to be enchanted through the magic of words.”

—Thomas Moore, excerpted from “Books and Calligraphies”,The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, Harper-Collins, New York 1996

To enchant is to literally “chant a thing into being”, whether by speech or song.  In centuries past, we humans created a particular sense of how we wanted our world to be by what we said and sang, enchanting the world we desired to come into reality.

Today, we inundate the air and everything else around us with our voices, thoughts, music and printed words without much regard to the world they are all competing to create.  How many of us bother to think or ask, “What are we trying to make here?”  We have debated the problem of noise pollution for several decades, and questioned the morality of some subject matter in our audio and print art forms, but what are we unconsciously creating with all this diverse and often conflicting collection of sounds and words?

What could we build this world into, if even a few determined people focused all their energies and words and songs into a specific desire for the betterment of the earth we all share?  What would it cost us to try?

It’s time again to consider the power of what we intend when we text a note, send a tweet, tag a wall, upload a song to the Internet, share a music file.  What we do does matter, every little thing.  What we say and sing has weight with the rest of the world, because the rest of the world is with us all the time.

Let’s take time to think about the words and sounds of our lives.  Let’s remember that they enchant us, for good or even evil. What you say is often longer-lived than what you do. In that sense, saying is doing.

Enchant the world you want with your words, with what you write and sing.  Remember that they are powerful.