The Power of One-Letter Words: I and A

Wednesday's Words, because words matter.

The English alphabet has two one letter words: I and A.

I. So definite. Strong. Insistent. Demanding in its single line, commanding attention, notice.

A. The opposite of I. It’s indefinite, part of a crowd. One of many.

We’re often told that using I is bad, self-centered. It’s too much ego. In law, we learn to use the universal “we,” the “royal we,” never the singular I. What’s so damn royal about we, except maybe the exaggerated way it’s used and said? More often it’s used to avoid commitment, accountability, responsibility. It is not I, but we, they, some amorphous group.

Differences in the way these letters are written, similarly reflect their different characteristics.