But some time ago it dawned on me that my excessive and irrepressible habit of talking weren’t without detriment to me (not to speak, others). I talk so much that I miss out on what someone else has to say, and so often, it feels like I’m just speaking to… myself! I miss whatever interesting tidbits the other person has to offer, whatever wisdoms (pseudo or otherwise) they have to impart, whatever knowledge they have to share, whatever stories they have to tell…everything.
What is that, if not a one-sided conversation where one party simply reiterates what he has to say to himself? Worse yet, what if I’m wrong? What if what I’m saying isn’t without mistake? (And it very probably is as I’m not perfect and neither is my reasoning.) Wouldn’t that mean that I’m only strengthening my own faulty prejudices and biases by repeating them to myself, and thereby reinforcing them? Indeed, having a mind cluttered to choking-point with fallacies is worse than having no mind at all.
And so I’m attempting to perfect the art of silence, not through outright halting of all speech (a la shaolin monk-style oaths of silence) but by learning when to employ silence: when to draw back and hold in my tongue and listen intently, not just await my turn to start speaking again. Silence is significant: it allows time for thought, for introspection, for genuine discovery, and for the intake of useful matter.
