The Weight of Words

 I listened to 680: The Weight of Words. In this podcast, people talk about their experiences with words in different forms and how they found them comforting and used them to get past tumultuous times in their lives. 

The podcast begins with the host talking about her experience with prayers. She said that even though she doesn’t believe in God or in any of the words of the prayer, she finds that saying the prayer is a comfort. Part of this is due to the fact that the prayer is familiar to her and perhaps reminds her of happier times in her life. Reminiscing about these moments gives her strength to carry on and move forward from any tragedy she faces. She had used the prayers to comfort her after mother’s death and said that the prayer reminded her of the nursery rhymes her mother would sing to her every night before bed. 

The first story on the podcast is about a woman, Shamyla, who was abused by her family in Pakistan and isolated from the real-world. Her adoptive parents lives in the USA and she lived with them until her birth parents in Pakistan didn’t let her return to the States after she visited them. While living in Pakistan, she explained that she had lost all freedom to do what she wanted as the family thought it was improper for her to do so. During this difficult time in her life, Shamyla found solace in reading Little Women. She would find circumstances in the book that closely mirrored her life and often follow the course of action the March sisters took. She said that she had read the book about a thousand times and had even memorized some parts of the book. The words in the book gave her strength to cope with her circumstances. They also helped take her away from her struggles and transport her into a different world. Once she returned back to the USA, she continued to use the book to help her readjust to life here while she experienced a culture shock. 

The second story on the podcast follows a father and daughter pair who worked together to write and record raps. From a young age, the father, Adam, noticed his daughter, Vivian, had a natural talent for rapping. He decided to immerse her into rap and wrote words in her raps that she could perform and record. As Vivian grew older, she disliked the words in the rap because she said that they didn’t truly represent her. However, she admitted that the rapping sessions she had with her dad allowed her to connect to him and share something no matter what else was swirling around them. Vivian found encouragement and comfort in the words that helped her get through difficult times in her life, while also forming a bond with her father. This bond also helped her to overcome challenges in her life. 

The third story of the podcast follows a family’s trip to the grocery store. One day, the speaker, his little brother and his mother were at the grocery store when his 2-year old brother started having a tantrum in the store. The mother started to comfort him. As they were leaving the store, they were confronted with an old white man who told the mother that she needed to discipline her child and that she didn’t belong in America because she was Chinese-American. During this intimidating confrontation, the owner of the grocery store came out and said “leave her alone”. Immediately after, the intense confrontation had dissolved. The clerk’s words had not only steered the family from trouble but also proved to the family that they did belong in America and they didn’t need to question whether they belong.