“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape their consequences. My actions are the ground on which I stand.” – Buddha

“If your actions don’t live up to your words, you have nothing to say.” – DaShanne Stokes

“It’s hard to explain and best thing to do is not be false.” – Jack Kerouac

Actions and words don’t replace each other. Doing an action by itself without words is akin to sending a blank thank you note. Without stating the intention that accompanies an action, it leaves the recipient questioning the meaning of the action. Sharing words without aligned action can be compared to writing a beautiful thank you note but never mailing it. Both of these fail in creating change.

If we choose to debate others on matters beyond our jurisdiction, it is less valuable than if we focus on matters over which we have a possibility of taking action. We end up wasting our time, even when we mount a successful campaign. Battles fought on paper, matter most when the paper is the point. I find that since the rise of social media, it’s very easy to get drawn into word battles over matters that are not changed by words alone. Social media gives us the illusion that posting our opinion in the babble of words filling the public square will create change. Keyboard warriors from every corner rise and meet each other, shielded with memes and wielding quickly typed ripostes. The trolls lie in wait in the shadows of the comment sections, like Bolshevik Muppets, ready to toss incendiaries. (thank you Jim Butcher for that image) They have no loyalty to anything other than mayhem. In the aftermath, all sides return to their daily lives having managed to accomplish less than they believe. Words lacking aligned action fade when the ears they are meant to touch never hear them.

One of the problems for those who do charitable work is; their daily actions don’t have anyone speaking for them. Actions without words can lessen the scope and scale of the action itself. Each family fed at a food bank is an action. But, where are the words? We might see a monthly report on the totals, shared by the food bank itself, but we would probably have to look for it. We rarely hear about food banks except as an example of a poor economy. It’s likely that if we followed food banks as closely as we follow the stock market, the shelves would be full and donations would rise. All around us, actions take place. But without words, those actions create less impact and quite often get missed entirely. When actions become invisible, they can become the victims of assumptions. To return to the food bank, if their actions become invisible to the community: the community will stop donating, the plight of the hungry and poor will be overlooked, and the clarity of the effects of economic choices will be muddied. The assumptions become that the food bank is unnecessary. Actions lacking aligned words lose their power and significance.

How do we match our actions to our words?

I start by not getting involved in debates about things over which I have no control. In my life so far, my being angry has meant absolutely nothing in relation to changing things outside of myself. I focus on what I can realistically accomplish. If something requires the cooperation of others to succeed, it might be out of my hands. I have taken most of my actions in silence over the years. But there have been a few times where accompanying the action with words made it expand to a broader audience, so the words were added.

“Woo, who says time is money?
My time is worth more than that” – Agust D “Daechwita” (BTS/Suga)

If we want to create lasting change, or at least large scale changes, in the world around us. Action is a start. Words are a start. The challenge lies in aligning our actions and our words. We need to use our words to amplify, and give our actions relatable substance. We need to match our actions to our words, creating trust and authenticity. We need to avoid becoming the equivalent of the business phone message “Please hold. Your call is very important to us.”