Chatterbox

I heard a quote a few months ago that made me pout and I've been stewing over it ever since. As an avid talker, (no, me?!) I wanted to find fault with this quote, or find out it was false-tweeted by Will Smith or something, but it's stayed with me long enough for me to write this blog, so no such success was enjoyed. Ok ok, quit talking about the damn quote and say it. It is this: "You'll never regret what you don't say."

Naturally when I first heard it my mind ran to some generic movie scene where Beautiful Lady is looking forlornly out a train window while it chugs out of a station at which stands Mr. Going Off to War who never told her he loved her. Yes, I think you can regret something you never said. (Also coming to mind: In the Living Years! Oh that song! Makes me think of going to the Donut Kettle after kindergarten class because, that song came out in 1988, I just wikipediad it.)

But I have to be ok with getting behind the sentiment of the quote, which I think is that it's much more likely that you'll get into a regrettable situation via talking than via silence.

And that makes me think about social media. But not in a "I have a revelation and now it applies to all of you" kind of way, because I don't dig that. More in a, "Maria, could this be relevant to you?" sort of way. And I think possibly it could be. Twitter and Facebook and blogging lead to a lot of talking by me. So far I haven't run into any "oh my gosh, I REGRET THAT" sort of situations. But I'm not decreasing my odds by constantly tweeting about loving diet pepsi and Batman or whatever the hell it is I tweet about. (I just looked and my latest tweet says simply "BRAIN ZAPS." So. There's that.)

As of right now I don't really have any dramatic exodus plans, because writing is important to me and I like sharing with other people. But I do just want to be a bit more timid about it. And I especially want to continue to try to avoid what I find to be the Cardinal Sin of social media: passive aggression. JUST DON'T DO IT. (Ie. "I hate it when people do (something really specific that someone who likely reads your tweets/statuses/face tattoos obviously just did to you).")

Coincidentally, James 3 is one of the most wince-worthy passages of the Bible for me. "No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Ach!

Maybe you're like me and your mouth moves faster than your heart, so to you I say, we're in this together and maybe we should eat more peanut butter so as to busy our jaws elsewhere? Or maybe you're not like me and you are quiet and gentle and thoughtful, and to you I tip my hat. Have patience with the rest of us.