Everyday Canvas

Thinking before Speaking…Is it conceivable?

Prompt: Shakespeare says to think before we speak.
“Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.” –Hamlet
“Weigh thy words before thou givest them breath.”—Othello
Is it ever possible to think before we speak, each time we speak? If we stopped to think, wouldn’t our conversations lose their spontaneity? What are your opinions on the subject?

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Although it is not always possible to take the time to think before we speak, we should be careful with what we say so we don’t hurt someone or make a delicate situation worse.

On the other hand, thinking too much annoys the other people. I know it from my exchanges with my husband.
A sample:
Me—Do you want coffee or tea?
He—Let me think.
For those who believe in astrology, this is one place where astrology works. He is a Gemini.

Aside from having difficulty with choices, for the lack of a better measure, most of us rely on our own perceptions of the other people’s needs and understanding. Thus, we can end up being misunderstood or hurting the other person’s feelings. Maybe a facial gesture or a shrug with dubious meaning could be used in a circumstance where our intuition tells us not to answer too quickly.

My fantasizing tells me that a reliable weighing machine needs to be invented, a machine that weighs the other person’s grasp and feelings and also weighs our own responses. Can you imagine how long that would take to get the simplest ideas across even in Nanoseconds?

Although we are WdC authors and like to play with words, sometimes the right words fail us. This makes me wonder about those people who can talk for hours at an end on the phone or in a crowded room. In the same vein, I know some people who talk incessantly and hijack the conversation. My understanding of them is that they rarely comprehend what the conversation is about and just need to talk out of a psychotic need to say something all the time. I bet they are not even fully aware of what they are saying at the moment they are saying it. A word-weighing machine would work so well for such people.

At some point, most of us often speak because it is expected of us, as an automatic answer to some stuff comes without a single thought, like “Fine,” to “How are you?” I am of the opinion that people who ask how I am when they first meet me don’t even want to know how I am.

I do believe, though, that thinking before speaking would be beneficial, if we could pull it. It would, however, put us on a speech diet, which might not be a bad idea either, at least every now and then.