I love language and words. Reading an item about author Daisy Goodwin, she said her daughter told her, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.” That related to her rather ample bosom, most of which was outside rather than inside her dress. However, I don’t think she dwelt on that comment by her daughter. Should we flaunt it? My experience of big breasts is rather limited. Confronted by them, I rarely pose questions about world poverty or economic collapse. A cleavage is distracting, making me, a man, feel like a perve if I stare at it. Conversely, if I look away it feels wrong, as if I am ignoring the woman behind the breasts. Surely, not flaunting is a sign that we possess confidence, that we don’t need to flaunt ourselves. The power of words sometimes passes us by.

Knife crime

David Woode is 36 and the crime correspondent of The Times. He has been stopped and searched so many times by police because he is black. It makes him, and me, angry and yet he is ambivalent. He recognises that young men, sometimes with a grudge, carry knives. The mother of a knifed young man supports stop and search because it keeps knives off the street. Did you notice that? How I wrote grudge but ignored it. He did the same in his article, ignored the word. However, that small and so often ignored word is perhaps the key to the problem. In my Shropshire life and, later, Cumbria life, people mentioned ‘bad blood‘ between them. A grudge is a tribal thing, a petty, minor slight. It appears more of a problem when you know lots of people or have a wide community. I don’t have either.

Power of words

Both of the points I mention need analysis. Should we flaunt it? My big breasts make yours look tiny. So what! Don’t those big, exposed, flashy breasts tell people you just lack confidence? Is it a sign of intelligence to be a sex object? And why do certain groups develop a grudge culture? What can we do to stop grudges, again, rather pathetic ways of signifying that I lack confidence, that I am easily offended. Look outward, be a calm and considerate person. Think about the power of those words that will be on your lips as you lay dying. Surely, cleavage and grudge will not reside there? Or will it!