A time to speak and a time to keep silent.
I’m very new to this Facebook thing. Less than 12 months old.
One of the terrifying things is the speed with which information is spread around the world. Quite literally, it is an international forum.
So you have to be really, really careful before putting anything up there or out there, especially when it is the Parish Facebook page. Once it’s out there… sure you can take it down again, but it has already been seen by… how many people? And is it ever really gone, like forever?
But this same caution also needs to be exercised in my daily words. Once something is spoken out-loud and in the company of one other person it is out there and cannot be retrieved. You can’t get it back, alter it, change it, polish it. Sometimes all there is, is regret and shame.
So I am trying to adopt a new strategy. Before engaging with others I ask myself these sorts of questions.
“Do I really need to say this today?” “Could it wait until tomorrow?” “Do I really need to send this email now?” “Is it not possible that there is a better choice of words?” “How will the recipient read this?”
There is a flip side to this. “Can I ever put off showing love?” Tonight is too late to write the card, make the phone call, reach out in whatever way is going to be appropriate.
I have been to enough funerals now to know that we are given a finite amount of time and opportunities to make the world a better place. Now is the time to keep silent and now is the time to reach out. It’s just a matter of knowing which is appropriate, but the time is always now.