I'll take "The Penis Mightier," Alex.

The title is a quip from SNL's funniest skit series, "Celebrity Jeopardy." But it's also a way in to introduce a more serious subject: an apology and a reminder to myself as a writer. I compiled a list of used book finds in my last post, and in it, I mentioned a book by Thich Nhat Hanh along with the statement that I'm a sucker for new age spiritualism. Well, I started reading the book last night and quickly realized my error. Thich Nhat Hanh is a serious Buddhist monk and writer of considerable grace, working in a religion that's been around longer than Christianity. Hardly new age.

It's a good reminder that if the pen is in fact mightier than the sword, then writers must handle words with care. In fact, not just writers, but anyone striving to be or in any public forum. This realization came to me at roughly the same time as Rush Limbaugh made news for calling a college student a slut for advocating birth control and Santorum for saying that "separation of church and state" made him want to "throw up." Words are indeed powerful, and anyone writing laws or news or blogs or even emails at work would do well to remember. What a difference a few words make!

Nobody reads my blog, so I'm safe, and the error was minor anyway. But philosophically, the error was huge. I don't want to be known for making this kind of mistake, or worse, for influencing anyone else's understanding toward incorrectness or worse. This morning I was reading some old Backpacker mags I've kept around, and the same thing came to mind. There was a story about an inexperienced guide leading a group of yuppies on a brief backpacking tour, and in it, he mentioned that he had told the would-be enthusiasts by email that there may be outhouses, and that they should pack a fleece, not thinking that his lie about the outhouses would jeopardize his authority, and that incompleteness in describing gear needed was actually misleading, as most of the newbies who came along packed very little for warmth and were quite miserable. A hearty but lackadaisical or laissez-faire attitude about information is just asking for trouble.

A friend reminded me of the Four Agreements recently, and one of the four tenets is to be impeccable with your word. For me, all of this is a good reminder to slow down—and act with intent—at work and in craft.