Basic exercise:
Close your eyes.
There are two people in the room with you, one on each side of you. One has a story to tell you but is quiet. The other also has a story to tell but cannot speak. Can you tell with your eyes closed (or even opened) who has a story to tell? Or who has a voice to tell it?
Chances are, no, you can’t.
In this context, A person who doesn’t speak is no different from a person who can’t speak.
“Every man to his tent”
I’ve heard this saying that, “always say less than is necessary”. “That is, in order to avoid excess talking or speaking out of turn, you have to think well to be sure that what you’re about to say is actually important. This was what Dionysius of Halicarnassus meant when he said, “Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.”.
For a long time, this quote was my explanation for not sharing some things that I could have shared because, when you really think about it, it probably wouldn’t make much difference if it went unsaid, right?
But then, we as humans are social creatures. We thrive on being members of communities. We have improved as a people because of our ability to coordinate and interact. We have grown because we have exchanged ideas and shared experiences. Yet these experiences, while they were unique when an individual went through them, become something we have in common with another member of the society when we share.
Now, what happens if we all hold back on sharing our individual stories because we don’t want to bother others and, because “it might be better to be silent”?
There might be a real problem here…
We live in a world where everyone as an opinion about something, half baked and greatly twisted opinions at that. We live in a world where everyone speaks but no one wants to listen. Everywhere you turn, you hear something, it’s so hard to find clarity and focus amidst the noise.
So does that saying sound like good advice?
Do we need to add more voices to the already deafening noise of quack opinions?
When I started writing, I always felt my words were inadequate; I still feel that way sometimes…
I created my blog a few years ago because I believed I had something inside me I had to share. Yet, a part of me wanted to keep it hidden forever because I wasn’t sure people were interested in what I had to say. Yet somehow people found it.
“Can you hear me?”
A while ago someone left a comment on a post:
“You have a really strong writing voice.“
I’d never heard anything like that before but it made me realise all the more how important words are.
I understood then what it means to have a voice. Here I am sharing my opinion, however inadequate I feel it is, yet someone still feels it prompts them in a way.
The point is, we can’t control the amount of opinion out there. We can’t censor what anyone feels like sharing even if we don’t connect to it. And we shouldn’t want to do that!
You might not connect with most of what you see out there. That’s okay. Someone else might. Just as someone else might be going through what you are experiencing, or what you have experienced. And sometimes, we feel this urge to share. This urge is the voice within you. It is the story calling to be told. It is your experience.
We need you
And your experiences have value. It distinctly calls out from the midst of the chaos around, as a calm reassuring voice in the midst of a storm to others who have similar experiences. Those who need to hear you.
Chances are if you are working on yourself every day to be better than you were the day before; if you are living life with the brakes off and taken as much risk as you can; if you’re exploring nature, your surroundings and asking questions no one is asking and also seeking answers to those questions; if you’ve stepped out of the box society has placed you and living despite your fears… Then you most likely have something worth saying.
Your process, your discoveries, your questions and then your opinions would all fight to come out, to be shared with the world.
Why?
Because what you have is a component of change. Because we need you. Because you are a survivor and a testament that there is hope.
So go on, speak!
