As I wrote in last week’s post, we are constantly bombarded by noise. I feel that in society, staying quiet is often an underrated ability. We are judged on how well we can talk but not on how well we can stay silent. Yet how many of us have said something we later regretted and wished that we had just kept our mouths shut.
We are told to stand up for what we believe in, which I believe is right. Yet I feel that there are times when a point can be clearly demonstrated with fewer words. Ghandi and Martin Luther King Junior chose to make a difference not through the noisy sound of guns but rather through quieter words.
People are sometimes called a ‘mouse’ when they are quiet and often it is not a compliment. But think about the king of the beasts who was trapped by a rope in Aesop’s Fables. Who was it that freed him? The little mouse. Although he couldn’t make as much noise as the lion, he was able to help rescue the lion because of what he was like – small and timid and sharp toothed.
Next time I’m tempted to make a noise, I’ll try to remember that there are times when mice, despite their apparent silence, have changed the world and stay quiet instead.
