Silent Cal

In an earlier post, I mentioned the idea of a companionable silence.  One of the twentieth century’s greatest Presidents was “Silent” Cal Coolidge.  It was reported that he’d sit with one of his friends for hours.  Just sitting, not talking.

There’s an old saying, “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it.”

As I get older, I note more and more that very few people are really that much alike.  The things that energize one person might bore, bore, bore most everyone else.  It is a priceless treasure to find someone who is really and truly interested in the things that you’re interested in.  I believe that 99% of conversations are spent with one or more people bored half out of their minds and ready to strangle the other conversants.  I also note that many people are not terribly good listeners.  They think that they have a lot to say, but know more than the people with whom they’re speaking, so why listen?  I overhear conversations with one person going on-and-on while others search for escape routes.  I hear people talking at cross purposes and one-upping each other with stories and ideas.  I listen.

I suppose I still talk a lot, but it seems less with each passing year.  Do people really want to hear what I say?  Maybe not, so why say it?  If someone asks to know something, I’ll explain.  But we’re in a world of chatter.  We drown in words of brine, words that are only too much, but do not satisfy the thirst.  Words more often seem to lead to miscommunication than communication.  Would it really hurt to just sit awhile, like “Silent” Cal, with friends without talking, just thinking?

This entry was posted on November 3, 2007 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Human Nature, Manners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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