Silence

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Silence. Just saying the word brings visions of solitude, peacefulness, and relaxation. But today I’m going to be talking about something different. Why would I give you one impression only to change directions on you? Read on and it will become clear to you.

Many people, and I’m one of them, want to help others. When I use the term “help others” I mean help them to understand that there doesn’t have to be many problems and failures in the lives. Examples:

A “stop” sign, and a red light, means stop right? What if you refuse to obey the stop sign or red light? You could cause an accident, run over a pedestrian, and likely receive a traffic citation and fine. However if you obeyed the traffic laws you would have stopped and you would have avoided a problem.

There are speed limits posted everywhere. Speed limits are there for a reason. The reason is to ensure you drive at  speed known to be safe to for you to drive at. Exceeding the speed limit could cause you to lose control of your car or hit another car. Obeying the speed limit would help you avoid a problem.

How about maintaining your vehicle? If you fail to maintain your car you can create a problem that could have been avoided. If you fail to maintain your brakes or fluid levels in your vehicle you could suffer a failure that causes your vehicle to go out of control. Maintaining your vehicle in proper operating condition helps avoid problems.

Those are just a few examples. There are so many in daily life and those are the ones I try to help people with. I tell them if they listen to me “9 out of 10 of your problems will be avoided” but often my suggestions are ignored and these people continue to have problems. They hate it when I’m right and when I tell them that they can eliminate 90 percent of their problems.

What type of problems would be included in this list? Read the short list below.

Purchasing something that states if you don’t like the products you must return it within a specified period of time or your credit card will be charged. When you fail to return the products you get charged. Having your teacher tell you that during an assignment there will be no talking and then you talk and get into trouble. Being told not to put glasses of liquid close to where your hands are but you do it anyway and then knock the glass over and make a mess on the table or floors.

I estimate in an average day of the average person there are at least 20 things they could do differently to avoid problems. There are 20 things that if you do the right thing you would avoid 9 out of 10 problems. If you would do 18 good things and only 2 problems hit you isn’t that better than having 18 problems daily with only 2 good things working for you?

People get tired of me stating “If you listen to me 9 out of 10 of your problems will be avoided.” However since rarely does anyone take my advice, and I have to watch them suffer with problems that could have been avoided, I’ve decided to take the stand of silence. Yes you heard that correctly. I will no longer give advice to try to help people avoid problems. Then when they ask “Why didn’t you warn me or tell me that would happen?” I will reply that since nobody listens to my advice to help them avoid problems I have gone silent and now they see that I was right.

Silence! Deal with it!