Member-only story
Why Can’t We Just Be Quiet?
The thing I crave most is silence.
The sheer amount of lying that’s required to facilitate human interactions is mind-boggling.
Everything from, “Your baby’s adorable!” to “I love your hair!” to “I can’t wait to hear about your vacation!”
All of those things are lies. And yet we’re expected to say them and we expect to hear them from others. And if we don’t, we’re offended, even though we know, deep down, they’re probably lies.
I don’t play that game, which is why I have no friends. I don’t say, “Hello.” I don’t say, “Good bye.” These are filler words signifying nothing.
You see me leaving, right? Why do I need to say “good-bye”, a phrase which originated as the prayer, “God be with ye”? This isn’t 17th-century Plymouth. I’m not a Puritan. My name isn’t Hester Prynne.
I’m not going to ask you about your vacation because you either had a great time and you’ll wax rhapsodic about things I’ll never experience, solely to demonstrate your social superiority, or you’ll complain about how awful it was just to squeeze a little sympathy juice out of me.
The problem is that people are not comfortable with silence.
