Silent people
Text | Su Tong
Life, of course, is not just talking, life also includes silence.
Many years ago at a gathering of friends, I heard a girl say this about a taciturn friend of mine who knew how to be silent. The girl's eyes lit up when she said this, and you could easily see from that look that her appreciation and praise for the silence was a great hint for a young man, who always paid extra attention to all kinds of hints from the opposite sex. And use this to identify their own behavior. I have always considered myself a taciturn person, and from that meeting I no longer seemed to have inferiority to my own character, and later in life I was free to obey my will, to not speak without speaking, and to speak less when I could. In the silence I observed others again and again, and found many rappers, people who did not speak up to their intentions, people who were overly enthusiastic, and many people who were enthusiastic about tongue movements. I am glad that I am a silent person, that I would rather not speak, that I would never speak indiscriminately, that I would rather talk less than say the wrong thing.
This is an ancient Chinese adage, and it is also a deep impression left by my childhood experience. Many years ago, when I was a primary school student, I saw the teacher stomping on a leather ball on the playground, because I was sad about that leather ball, I shouted like an old woman, you are neurotic, a good leather ball, why do you want to stomp on it? The teacher was furious, he grabbed my hand and led it to the office, and said as he walked, "You are the opposite, do you dare to call the teacher neurotic?" I didn't think the teacher was a nervous, but those three words had been spilled like water, they couldn't be taken back, and I could only swear that someone would stomp on all the balls in the world in the future, and I wouldn't care about him.
On many occasions I counted the language in my mouth like gold coins in the Grande count box, so that many people learned the power of silence, in fact, few people regard silence as charm, more people feel rude or bored in the face of silent people, and sometimes a silent person goes to visit another friend who likes silence, and the scene will be like a silent film movie of the thirties. Frankly, I myself often stage this silent film at home with friends of similar personalities. When the other person said goodbye, the faces of the two people invariably flashed a look of relief, and one afternoon or night they felt that they were wasting time.
But time and life can change a person, over the years I involuntarily experience my own changes, this change may begin at the beginning of family life, may begin with the influence of a few "multi-tongued" friends, anyway, I now began to talk a lot, a lot of talking at first out of need, my wife needs to discuss with me about family affairs and state affairs and many other useful and useless things, my daughter needs me to tell her many nonsense myths, I need to explain to her the meaning of street advertisements and store signs, A few friends who talk sharply and sharply need my cooperation when they speak, and I can't always be indifferent, just by smiling with my mouth open, just nodding my head and saying yes, I always have to express a little of my opinion.
Gradually the need became a habit, no matter who talked to me, I always tried to say more than the other party, the strange thing is that I actually got some kind of happiness in the non-stop talking, this happiness was once out of my touch, this happy feeling is a little hazy, a bit like the happiness of the water gushing out after unscrewing the tap, and also a bit like the joy of the iron tree blossoming deaf and dumb people singing, saying more sometimes jokes, a friend talking more, once he asked someone else, what day is tomorrow? When someone told him that Sunday was tomorrow, the friend asked, What day of the week is Sunday? The people present were momentarily dazed, it was a true joke, but somehow I always thought that the friend was very cute, and so much so much that it was the happiness of the speaker and everyone, and even the most silent person would be infected by this happiness and let out a subtle laugh.
I remember a few years ago a distant guest came to visit, I talked to him with a feeling of anxiety, and when the guest said goodbye, you are very talkative, I was first surprised, and then it was a joy. This joy is like the joy of a chick having just learned to fly, yes, a bird must fly, a healthy person must speak, this is life.
Life, of course, is not only talking, life also includes silence, and sometimes I look back on my silent youth and youth with a sense of trepidation, and I think about the reasons why many people are silent. I think some people are silent because they don't want to talk, some people are silent because they are not good at talking, and some people are silent because they don't know how to talk. Silent people treat life with silence, but silence is a lock, there will always be a key to open this lock, this is also life.
Su Tong, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is a famous contemporary writer. His works include "The Escape in 1934", "Hordes of Wives and Concubines", "My Emperor's Birth Cliff", "Rice" and so on. The novel "The Yellow Bird" won the 9th Mao Dun Literature Award. "The Yellow Sparrow" was selected into the "New China 70 Years and 70 Novels Collection".
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