My boys spent a school day in total silence this week, in a "quiet statement" against hate and violence. Midway through the day, I got the email note below from my oldest...showing that the experience had revealed a profound truth about life and the essence of being human.
Do you know how hard it is to be silent for a whole day? Anyway, I have recently come to the epiphany that 90% of the things that I say during the day can be avoided with relative ease (granted that 10% has been a major pain to attempt to communicate today.) I assume that I am not alone in this statistic, and this raises a very serious question, what is the purpose of speaking? Are we simply more comfortable when we are filling the air with words that somehow connect us together? Maybe thats it. Maybe communication is mostly just a way for humans to connect with each other and not just a means to an end of accomplishing a goal. It's strange. It's only a day, and yet I feel so isolated. Anyway, I just thought I would share my epiphany with you.
I love that kid. What a great reminder. Everyone (me included) is so task-focused, that we even reduce the most basic human need for social connection into a utility-optimized 12-step program for creating better Powerpoint slides. Or employee meetings that "get everyone on the same page" or "improve employee satisfaction" or...whatever.
Talking, listening, connecting, sharing -- in our efforts to make it as "effective" as possible, we often apply crude metrics...and then eliminate the pursuit of many forms that are important but not measurable. People are messy. Connection is messy. Get messy.
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