And words can also disappoint people.
The recent use of certain words by the likes of Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee have hurt people, disappointed people, and in the case of Barr, may have destroyed her career.
She wouldn't be the first one to dig a very deep hole for herself by using words which were destructive.
I remember years ago, Al Campanis, long-time baseball executive with the Los Angeles Dodgers, said on ABC's "Nightline" news program that the reason that there weren't more black owners or managers in Major League Baseball was that possibly they didn't have the "necessities" that would lead them to such positions in America's national pastime.
He got roasted over the coals for that one, even though he preceded what he said by saying that many blacks who would be good fits for these positions have gone into other fields and have done very well for themselves.
Whatever the case, Campanis was lambasted for the "necessities" comment, lost his executive position with the Dodgers, and was branded a racist for the rest of his life, whether true or not.
Now, we have the case of someone whose mouth has gotten him in trouble, even in death.
David Cassidy, one-time TV heartthrob on "The Partridge Family" and who died of organ failure in November after years of drinking and hard living, admitted on video to producers of what has become a new documentary about him that he lied about his drinking and lied about his health, even to his family, in his last years of life.
After years of driving under the influence altercations with police, Cassidy checked into rehab in 2014, and the public and his own family were deluded into believing that he had finally kicked the alcohol habit once and for all.
His deteriorating health was blamed, by him very publicly and privately, on progressing dementia, which was in his family and that he had inherited.
However, the truth was far from that.
Cassidy told producers of the documentary just two months before he died that an incident where he passed out at a recording studio and had to be rushed to the hospital was a bit more than was thought.
"The fact is that I lied ... I have liver disease ... There is no sign of me having dementia at this stage of my life ... It was complete alcohol poisoning."
Asked why he lied, Cassidy said he did this--the drinking and the lies about his health--"to cover up the sadness and the emptiness."
He may have also lied about his condition, and his refusal to give up alcohol, to somehow lead his kids--he had a son and a daughter--to believe he was living a clean life.
His admission was said to be shocking to his kids, who were led to believe that it was dementia, not alcohol abuse, that led to their father's early death. He was just 67 when he died.
Sure, what Barr and Bee and Campanis said was quite different than what Cassidy said, but still, the words had to hurt, and had to hurt his family the most, but also the legion of fans who stood by the former teen idol during his lowest points.
Once again, it proved that words can hurt, even when they essentially come from the grave.
Cassidy's admission that he was abusing alcohol through the final stages of his life will air as part of an A&E documentary that premieres next week called "David Cassidy: The Last Session." The show's producers were supposedly debating about what to do with the footage, but decided to include it in the documentary.
Remember when we went to school and we learned the axiom "The pen is mightier than the sword" ... ?
Well, the pen can be mightier than the sword when it puts together words and phrases that can be pointed and hurtful, as the trio I mentioned certainly did, but not with the pen, but with their mouths.
Cassidy did his hurting from the grave, and when you think about it, what he said probably should have gone with him to his final resting place, rather than be festooned in a television documentary.
You have to feel for his kids, his legion of fans, and others that supported him through his struggles.
Perhaps another, more gritty axiom, "zip the lip," should have been employed by Cassidy and the others.
Things kept in the head remain there, and nobody has to know about it but the one thinking it.
But when you put it out on the plate, others are going to take swings at you.
Barr, Bee and Campanis experienced that ... I wonder if Cassidy even realized that what he was saying was going to be his unfortunate epitaph?
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