Talking, it’s so damn overrated

Whenever I meet someone who doesn’t talk much, it is a great relief to me. I get much more comfort and satisfaction from a simple smile, knowing glance or gesture. From just being there with someone, having the option to throw a few words around but not having the peer pressure to say anything at all when you don’t feel like it or just don’t want to. People usually say enough through their body language.

Maybe I just think differently (being an introvert), or was raised in a different way but to me talking is, in most cases, not much more than externalizing your own insecurity. Validating your own existence, getting other people to agree with you. And if they don’t, quickly adjust or polish your belief about something so you fit in some more. Or at least act like you agree, so other people will accept you and think you’re really neat.

Why else would you give someone your opinion about something? Yes, to enlighten, or to get a discussion going. But that’s only 1% (and now I’m being really generous), the other 99% is complete and utter bullshit, hot air, staving off boredom, fighting the dread of silence in social situations, the insecurity about your own beliefs about petty little things that don’t matter at all and worst of all: bad breath.

To me not talking much has two great advantages: a) you have much more time to observe and b) you have much more time to think. Put a) and b) together and eventually you get a wise human being, someone you can really look up to.