Asked to write a blog…

Grenoble, France

Asked to write a blog and maybe a book as well.  A good challenge, as I have gotten out of the habit of making my voice heard. I tend to wait to be asked before I tell some aspect of my history or even my opinion. This often has the result that I don’t say much. Sometimes, I find it almost hard to work my speech muscles, to get my mouth to form round sounds, after having stayed listening for hours. Do you know that sensation of trying to unstick your jaw and re-activate unused muscles in the back of your tongue?

Being in the habit of not talking also has the effect that when I do say something, it has been voiced after passing quite a high internal standard for ‘usefulness’. Because I have culled the verbal dunnage, I am not good at not being listened to – or disagreed with before there has been clear consideration. This makes me a poor debater, and a slow participant in repartee. Even last night, when a policeman told me to move as the ‘sidewalk was closed’, I took time to consider whether I knew enough about the legal status of sidewalks as public thoroughfares. I am reluctant to mislead my listener or lie, and so I was silent when I would have much preferred to have been able respond rapidly and accurately with information as to why the police cannot just close a sidewalk to get rid of peaceful observers of police action against a demonstration.

I am of the opinion (which I share as you apparently have ‘asked’ by reading this blog), that there is too much talking in many places, especially in certain societies where verbal noise has replaced silent cogitation. This is certainly one of the reasons I am attracted to Quaker worship, and one of the benefits I receive from making time for worship.  An hour spent together in silence, with the exception of messages the speaker feels called to speak, is a rare treasure. (I do notice that in the talkative societies, the sharings may also be long and repetitive, but cultural variation is part of the interesting things about life).

This blog is a rumination on life and poverty, cultures, and how we ordinary people might act to improve the world. I am a Quaker and an artist, a person of mixed nationality and with no home to go to. I lived for a long time in areas with few Quakers, so my knowledge of other Quaker thinkers and writers may be less than yours. Please share and respond with respect and information!  I am currently planning a trip exploring the pottery and visual art in Central America, with the idea of sharing my thinking with other people, including other Quakers.