Peanut butter, poetry and sticky things

What do you think of when you hear the word, “sticky”?  “Sticky fingers,” or “sticky notes”?  Peanut butter?  Maple syrup?  Elmer’s glue?

According to wikipedia.org, in economics, “sticky” describes a situation in which a variable is resistant to change.

Yes, there are sticky situations in the world of economics and in life in general.  And, what about sticky words?  One direct quotation that has stuck with me over the years was uttered by Pearl Strachan who famously said, “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.”

How many striking music lyrics do we often recall?  How many lines of a poem?  How many words from a play or a movie have stuck with us over the years?  And, when do these sticky words, stated or written by others, evidence themselves in our lives?  How many of our statements are 100% original, not having withstood the influence of someone else’s sticky words of wisdom?

Without doubt, the words of our parents, of our teachers, of our favorite writers, of our favorite friends, of our favorite loves, often seem to tarry.

Shakespeare is one of the best examples of someone whose words have tarried on and on.  In his Sonnet 116, which is a favorite of mine, he wrote about the stickiness of true love stating:

“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds, 
Or bends with the remover to remove: 
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark 
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;”

Shakespeare wrote the words in 1609, and, in 1995, British actress Emma Thompson brilliantly incorporated the sonnet into the Sense and Sensibility movie screenplay that was adapted from the 1811 novel of the same name.  Who could forget this scene from the movie directed by Ang Lee?

What are the most sticky words you’ve ever uttered or written?  And who was listening?