A quote

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you..."-Kahlil Gibran.

I often wonder if I talk too much, or I don't speak up enough.
I chit chat in class when I'm supposed to be taking notes. I use the most telephone minutes in my family's cingular plan. I talk on AIM habitually, and find that when I'm walking to class the first thing I reach for when my feet hit the pavement is my phone. I talk to the TV when I'm watching a show or a movie...as if I'm somehow involved in the program I've selected.
I "talk", via my other blog, to my sister in Israel on a daily basis. I start conversations with the cashiers at Giant and Safeway, I yell at drivers who cut me off. I whistle while I work, and I laugh outloud when I'm reading.

I'm always making some kind of noise.

But what about the noise I'm not making?
What about the homeless people I see lying in the streets, who I walk past without a sidways glance?
What about the rallies going on in downtown DC that I don't attend because of homework or plans with friends?
What about the overflowing trash cans that I add my receipts to?
What about all the questions I don't ask (in addition, or in contrast, to the ones I do)?
What about the compliments I don't give, the calls I don't make, the letters I don't write, the e-mails I don't respond to?

What makes a bigger influence on my life: the words I'm saying, or the ones I'm not?

I don't think of myself as a person who really talks just to talk. I mean what I say. But maybe I give in to quantity, knowing that I need to speak a lot of silly words in order to squeeze out some quality sentiments. I need to have conversations about Paris Hilton and MTV and my dinner at Guapos, in order to talk about love, and friends, and family. I can't be profound all the time, and if I don't warm my voice up, or get my train of thought out of the station, all of my best words would be left unsaid. In order to speak meaning, I need to also speak meaningless.

I am the ultimate well-rounded person. Rather than just talk about the sadness of leaving DC, I'll talk about my cats, the weather, and then drop a line of 'I'll really miss being here next year'. I work my way up to my most important statements.

I speak so much so that what I need to say gets spoken. Even if it's only half of the time.