Knowing When to Keep Silent

 I have not given up getting my unpublished book “The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others” published. There is some “pushback” against my concept of a society where we all get along and are nice to each other. Then there are others who have been wonderfully supportive of me to go on with this project. I am incredibly grateful to them. I hope I can get the good word out there. That is the hard part for me, right now.

I just came from a local movie theatre complex. I had waited to see this film for some time as I had read the book and was eagerly waiting to see the film version. As the film was beginning two ladies in two separate locations were carrying on a conversation. One of these two ladies would react to incidents and particularly surprises in the film with a very loud verbal reaction. Of course, I turned around and stared at her several times. I almost said something to her like, “Would you please stop talking?”  I might have added: “This is a movie theatre not your living room.” But I did not utter either comment.

I am reminded of Phillip McGraw who most of us know as the fabulous Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil has several great sayings and one is “Never miss an opportunity to shut up.”  There are people out there (and I see this quality in some family members and good friends) who feel they must react to anything and everything they hear with a comment or some sort of verbal reaction.

As far as the movie theatre is concerned, someone once told me, “When the movie is playing people need to shut off their phones and shut their mouths.” Absolutely! In life, people need to think, depending on where they are at a given moment, if this moment is the right thing to say something or it might be better to stay silent. “The Split Second” discusses the wisdom in knowing the difference.

My book is about thoughtfulness for others and openly showing it. Many have told me that this is slipping away in society. I believe that we can truly become a society where we can all think of others as we “go out in the world.”  It must start somewhere, and I am willing to be a pioneer to bring it back into society.