THE WISDOM OF SILENCE
Old World family values are still relevant today.
I’m a writer. A songwriter. A poet.
Since I was a kid I kept a journal and I poured it all in there. The truth. As I saw it. And of course mostly I missed it. It takes years, time, distance before you truly see things the way the are.
My parents were old school Irish. My whole family network of sister, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles was old school Irish.
What’s the core value of my Irish roots? Silence. If I can remember anything from conversations with my mother it’s this: We don’t talk about that.
It used to drive me crazy to hear my mother say those words. And she said them a lot.
I always wanted to unpack things, to understand, to learn, to dig down. It’s what artists do to create the great art, the art that speaks to our humanity, that helps us understand ourselves.
We don’t talk about that.
It’s not who we are.
Years later i see the wisdom of those words. Not that I totally agree with them. Just that I see the consequences of honesty in families and relationships when we speak our truth to each other.
Speaking your truth means accepting that the other person might shut down and cut you…
