In Praise of Introspection (tf)

The world needs more introspection.

You know. Thought.

And then….silence.

Rational thought I might add. Most irrational people have big mouths, which is how we learn how irrational they are. If they’d just keep the goofy stuff buried in the larnyx, the world might be a better place.

Read a book instead of burning one. That sort of thing.

I know how I feel and what I think and what I like to do and what I don’t like to do and who I like and who I don’t like. I mostly don’t feel the urge to broadcast these things….at least vocally (I have lapses, however…especially in regards to republicans). Sure I’ll write ’em down ’cause that’s what writers do. As a musician I’ll even write and sing about them. But put me in a roomful of people and I’ll be in the corner closest to the door, just waiting for the chance to bolt without anybody noticing. One of the good things about clamming up in public is that people don’t notice when you leave….or that you may not have even been there in the first place. Sometimes I’ll say…”I was there….did you have a good time too?” and the person will say “oh yea, I saw you. Sorry we didn’t get to talk”.

I’m memorable that way.

Quiet people are only really introverted if they blend into the walls like a window. If you stick out in your silence, by wearing a purple sequin hat for instance, or doing yoga in the middle of a party, or drinking so much that you vomit on the host’s shoes, you are not really introverted. You are seeking attention in eccentric ways….like a Michael Jackson bemoaning the fact that he can’t go to the movies unrecognized like a “normal person”…..while insisting on wearing a single white glove, carrying a baby with a blanket over the kid’s head, and being surrounded by 10 huge, surly bodyguards wearing wrap-around shades. People still insist that Michael Jackson was “painfully shy”. But shy people don’t marry Elvis’s daughter or wear pajamas to court or do television interviews while sitting next to prepubescent boys and stroking their hair.

They just don’t.

Michael Jackson was a freakish narcissist who just happened to have a freakish ability to sing and dance. He was about as introverted as Baloo from The Jungle Book.

I don’t mean to pick on a dead guy…but he just came to my mind when I spell-checked the word “sequin”. Go figure. There are 100 other examples I could have used.

So I’ll say it again.

The world needs more introspection.

We need to think before we talk. We need to ponder before we bloviate. We need to consider the perspective of others before giving ours.

If we can answer a question with one word, we should not use two.

I’m not sure it’s possible to learn anything if we don’t have moments of introspection. It’s gotta be difficult to take something in if all we’re doing is spewing something forth.

I was gonna say “so let’s hear it for the introverted”, but that kinda destroys the message here.

So instead I’ll say “let us contemplate the possibility that the smartest among us may indeed say the least. And cheer. Silently.”

And from them, perhaps we can all learn.

–Tom Flannery

~ by admin on March 6, 2012.