<photo: along the trail on Mount Kinabalu>
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" is an English idiom which means that people cannot hurt you with bad things they say or write about you. Or can it?
in a Bloomberg article, an employee was reported to have committed suicide after being overworked. this prompted the company to review one of its principles - “If you have tackled it, don’t relinquish it. Even if you are killed, don’t relinquish it until you achieve your goal.”
words are the basecamp of life - they can motivate you to climb higher or they can distress you to depression and ultimately drive you to death in the above case.
in Singapore, an estimated 5.6% of the population are affected by depression during their lifetime. people with depression hear words like "snap out of it!", "what's wrong with you?!" and "it's all in your mind". these words can hurt and these words can kill.
"better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace." Buddha