Echoes in a Hollow Space

Random quote of the day:

“Grant yourself a moment of peace,
and you will understand
how foolishly you have scurried about
Learn to be silent,
and you will notice that
you have talked too much.
Be kind,
and you will realize that
your judgement of others was too severe.”

—Ancient Chinese Proverb



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“The silence doesn’t seem to care. It is simply there for anyone who has ears to hear. It is so huge and so intense. It has the sweetness of a balm and the heat of a fire.”

—Nicole Oxenhandler, The Wishing Year

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“Hiding behind silence is a particularly odious form of cowardice.”

—Jonathan Carroll, Twitterfeed, May 19, 2013



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“In the attitude of silence, the Soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive, resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth…”

—Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in Light of India or Message of Mahatmaji by M. S. Deshpande

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“True silence is the rest of the mind, and it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

—William Penn, Advice to His Children

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

I've never been good at small talk, mostly because I find it so unnecessary.  I'm comfortable inside my own head and don't feel the need to fill the void with noise.  I do realize it serves some socializing function: people have this antsy feeling that it's rude to be silent, so they fill the empty air with chat; people reach out trying to make new friends, so they start with the basics, etc., and I think you can feel when those are the kinds of things people are doing.  I don't mind that and I'll play the game, commenting on the weather or how many floors on the elevator have been punched. 

But there's this other component to small talk that I find harder to take: people who just like to hear themselves talk; people who are desperately uncomfortable inside their own heads and want to distract themselves from too much thought; people who want to establish dominance or control or ascertain the pecking order.  All of these things can be covered with small talk, too, and I think it's just as obvious when someone is engaging in this kind of chat.  I usually remain silent in such presences—acknowledge that I've been addressed with a vague smile and a raised eyebrow.  I just don't want to contribute to the noise quotient.  Which, I suppose, makes me something of a hardass.  It's a fair cop.

No real point to this post except that it was a morning dominated by small talk on the way in—of both varieties.

I did see one interesting vignette on the drive to work this morning.  I pulled up to a stoplight behind a beat up flat panel truck.  The guy in the cab was grizzled, with a thick, drooping mustache, and I remember thinking he reminded me of a character from Tim Powers's novel, Last Call—Archimedes Mavronos, the neighbor and friend who was dying of cancer.  And I was driving through Venice at the time, which I have associated with Powers ever since I read Dinner At Deviant's Palace, not one of my favorite Powers books, but memorable since I'm a native Venetian.  (Or is that Venusian?  Often the lines become blurred in Venice, California.) 

Anyway, the guy in the truck...The back of the cab was plastered with Oakland Raiders decals, the license plate holder had Oakland on the top frame and JRAIDERS as the license, and the back end of the truck had three bumpers stickers, reading left to right:  "Oakland Raiders," "Bush/Cheney '04," and "Boycott France."  Hey, I just had to laugh.  Then as we were toodling down the street together, a car zipped around me and pulled in behind the truck.  That car had a Kerry/Edwards sticker on the back and soon decided to zip around the truck, as well, and speed off down the road.  I thought it was emblematic of something, but like all metaphors, best left to the reader to decide the meaning.

Enough small talk.