People Say Stuff

It happened this evening that a few words came out of someone's mouth that, once aired, changed things in a pretty significant way.  Words are sometimes said without a plan in a moment of emotional lightness followed by a giggle.  Even when shocked, we adults are practiced at cringing internally, careful not to grimace, show obvious surprise, intake air sharply, or lock eyes at the wrong time.  "Everything's cool" is what we want to communicate in body language, though everyone knows something just clicked over into un-coolness.  The  casual words uncorked can never be siphoned back into the bottle of a mere idea.  They are now in the public space, consumed.  Words have consequences, though in the moments just after they are spoken it's often radically unclear where they will take things.  That's part of the horror or fun of it, depending on your perspective.  It's best not to worry; things will probably work out.  But those unanticipated words . . . they do have a jarring effect.  I suppose it's in the nature of being human that, at any time, someone will say something in someone's presence that perhaps would have best been thought, not broadcast.  But people, being human and all, say stuff.