An Awkward Silence
We don't always have the right words. But showing our intentions helps.
“You have a grand gift of silence, Watson,” said he. “It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.” — Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891
“I really don’t know what to say.”
That’s how I opened a conversation with a friend in the last couple of days — a friend who has family in Israel right now.
“I just don’t have the words,” I continued.
Having read and seen enough of the news coverage of the horrific massacre over the weekend, I was simply at a loss.
Bewildered.
Bereft.
Benumbed.
But my friend understood my intentions. He knew that by simply expressing my shock and sadness, I was in solidarity with him.
Had I chosen not to mention it, he might have thought differently. That is, if I had chosen the path of silence, it would have communicated something else entirely.
Silence, in that case, would have been deafening.
The challenge, I think, is that too often, we try to fill the silence by yammering away — filling …
