JABBER NOT MY FRIENDS!

I am sure we’ve all had moments when we wished someone could just shut up and maybe listen. Human society is full of the need to talk, sometimes leading to unnecessary jabbering until we loose our listening ears. Balanced dialogue is as important to good conversation as balanced diet is to good health. What we have to say might be very important, but we must be willing to give others the chance to express themselves so that a formidable conclusion may come in the end. Those who selfishly uphold their own voice and opinion to higher truth often fail to hear the echo of reason on the other end.

Improvements in telecommunication have made what is ought to be a two minute conversation into a quarter of an hour of mumbling and no new information. Our streets are full of people clinging to cell phones for hours and saying virtually nothing. Ours is one of the most modernized societies, but we are a generation most intoxicated by bullshit. I always admonish my friends to make an attempt in every conversation to cut the bull and say the shit. Eloquence is not about how long you speak, it is about how good is the information rendered. We could prevent our audience from descending into intellectual slumber by simply avoiding unnecessary tangents and saying just what’s ought to be said.

Simply put, the economy of words is vital to those who are public speakers. The more we can express ourselves in a few words, the better we can convey our message and avoid the temptation of falsehood. The curse of oratory is to feel that you always have to say something. There is nothing wrong with saying “I have nothing to say at the moment.” According to Gandhi, “silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth.” Many misunderstandings can be avoided just by saying what one has to say, in order words, cutting the bull from the shit. As the Mahatma most accurately emphasizes, “a man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.”

We can save ourselves from many unnecessary ‘he said, she said,’ by simply measuring our words and remaining silent where there is no pressing need to utter a word. To heed my own advice, I think I have said enough on this matter. A cooking pot for the chameleon is a cooking pot for the lizard. Hush now!