Yak,
Yak, Yak
“It is
better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to
talk and remove all doubt of it.”
Maurice
Switzer (“Mrs. Goose, Her Book”)
We seem to live in the
Golden Age of inane, arcane, hot-air-producing, brainless chatter.
Social media has opened up “Pandora's Box of Blather,” and loosed
the greatest out-flowing of stupid rhetoric in the history of
humankind. Everything from our President's idiotic 3 a.m. tweets, to
his beleaguered Press Secretary, who just couldn't stuff his foot any
further down his own throat if he tried, to people commenting on
their hot new hairstyle, their 1970 prom dress, or their new summer
toenail color, as though anyone else on earth is interested. It's
distressing, and depressing, and, honestly, just plain sad.
But it's more than that;
we all talk too much—myself included. We talk nonsense and opinion,
and in doing so, expose our grave ignorance of almost everything. I'm
speaking for myself, of course. I tend to opine, and pontificate and,
in general, run my mouth about things I have no business commenting
on at all. I wonder about you—do you do that, too? Talk just to
talk? Are we really so proud of our ability to form words that we
feel compelled to produce them every minute of every day?
What if each of us were
to declare a one-day moratorium on speaking. A designated day devoted
to silence. What might we discover? Is it possible that we use speech
as both a deflector and a weapon? Could it be that we hide behind it,
and use it to shield whatever part of us is soft and vulnerable? With
a day of silence, we might discover that within us is a field of
solitude, a peaceful resting place, where we need not batter others
with our words, nor be battered by theirs. A sunny, windswept country of quiet, where we might regain our sanity and our common sense.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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