By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

The word flies through the digital network like a comet in the sky. Everyone stops to look. And like a comet, the word comes around the discussion universe periodically for more hits. But the word merely baits you.

Get off the hook. Stop reading here and write your daily essay, live your life well, and share your goodness with someone today…

This writing will stymie the search engines due to the lack of proper names, upper case bolded places, links, and incendiary terms. Your search has a deeper meaning. You look for answers and intelligent questions. You know you can reply here if you want with something short, or a lengthy piece with your own title and by-line.

You know how words can incite us, create an actual emotion, an elevated heartbeat, and more words. We know certain words sell, and in this age of online news and discussion, there are marketable words with arresting effects like a loud foghorn, that grab us and even shake us in a way.

The word itself is not awkward or uncomfortable, it’s the context and more often our personal context. Who we are and how we became the person we are, or who we think we may be, directly affects our connection with the word.

In the marketplace of words with the immediate feedback of marketability and hit counts, certain words deserve to be gold-plated, tagged for their value and perhaps even someday traded like shares. In the meantime, get off the hook.