It's really quite a chatty world after all (standard:Inspirational stories, 907 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Sep 26 2011	Views/Reads: 4093/2	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
I must be the only one in this world of ours that truly appreciates quietness. Maybe it's old-age stomping its tired old boots, but I think the world has gotten just a little bit noisier. As I got older, I thought my hearing would begin to diminish. I ass

I must be the only one in this world of ours that truly appreciates
quietness. Maybe it's old-age stomping its tired old boots, but I think 
the world has gotten just a little bit noisier. As I got older, I 
thought my hearing would begin to diminish. I assure you, I am hearing 
more today than I have ever wanted to hear in all my life. 

I remember my grandfather and his hearing aid. When there was a family
gathering and he was sitting quietly smiling, I came to understand he 
had turned his hearing aid off. How I envy him now. If only I could 
turn my hearing aid off. 

I have tried ignoring my wife, but I can assure you that was not a very
good plan. To ignore your wife is to place your health in dire 
jeopardy. Who wants Alex Trebek breathing down your neck? "I'll take 
American history for $100, Alex." 

Not long ago I had to take a trip flying the friendly skies. I do not
mind flying, but it is not my favorite mode of travel. I would rather 
stay at home and dream of traveling. On a recent trip, I happened to 
sit next to an elderly man. 

We exchanged pleasantries and I settled down with a book hoping to get
in a few pages before the trip ended. I had selected a very special 
book for this trip. My elderly friend settled down with the full 
intention of rehearsing to me his entire autobiography. For an old 
gentleman, he had a fantastic memory. I think, but do not quote me 
here, he recited to me every blessed day of his life. If my 
recollection is correct, and I know I was brain fuzzy during the whole 
process, he related one incident at least four different times. Either 
he is the father of "Groundhog Day," or many things in his life 
happened repeatedly. 

Last week I went to get my haircut at a local hair salon. I usually go
to a particular one near my house and I stopped in for my regular 
haircut. A few people were ahead of me, so I sat down, picked up a 
magazine and was going to have a pleasant time waiting my turn. 

Not paying too much attention to the clientele, there was sitting next
to me today very nice little girl. I made one mistake. I looked at her 
and said, "And how are you today, little girl?" 

That was the last sentence I got in for the next hour. She talked so
much I thought her tongue would fall out. Then she talked some more and 
I thought my ears would fall off. How can anybody so young have so much 
to say? I am 10 times her age and I do not have one 10th as much to say 
to her, as she had to say to me. Who in the world is teaching these 
children to talk? 

Then, in the middle of her chat diarrhea, she looked at me and said,
"What do you think about that, mister?" Not expecting it and not really 
knowing what she was talking about, I hesitated for a moment. 

My second mistake. 

Before I could take a good breath, she began her chat diarrhea as though
she was just beginning. She was probably about six years of age with 
not a very large vocabulary but she knew how to use every word in her 
vocabulary a multitude of times. Some of her sentences were five 
minutes long, and at the end, I had no idea what she was saying. The 
end of her sentence had no apparent relationship to the beginning of 
her sentence. And the middle, well, who could follow that. 

Oh, how I pity her English teacher. 

I date back to the time before cell phones. I know not many people are
living today who dates back that far. We have become a generation of 
cell phones. Before the cell phone era, that was the day, I could sneak 
off somewhere and nobody could find me. 

Oh, how I envy those glorious days of yesteryear. 

Now I pack one of those blasted cell phones wherever I go. No matter
where I am, somebody can get a hold of me. When I say somebody, I am 
actually referring to my wife. As it stands now, I am within dialing 
distance of her Majesty. 

Thinking about this I have come up with, maybe not a solution, but at
least a little reprieve for those of us who are tired of the noise. I 
propose a national noise-free-day celebrated every year. For 24 hours, 
nobody would be permitted to say anything. 

I know this would hit the politicians rather hard. Everybody knows if a
politician does not speak for a 24-hour period the fickle electorate 
would forget about him or her. And, for a politician not to say 
anything for a 24-hour period it would cause him or her to die of 
suffocation. 

Actually, in either case the American public wins. 

This brings me to my favorite Bible verse. "Be still, and know that I am
God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the 
earth" (Psalms 46:10 KJV). 

It is in the stillness that we begin to know God. What would happen if
for a brief moment each day we became still before the presence of God? 



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