He Don't Say Much

I once worked with a guy who spoke only a few words a day. Malcolm had a saying over his desk which read, "If you don't understand my silence, you won't understand my words." I've seen that saying a few times since I worked with Malcolm back around 1982, but it still doesn't make much sense. I mean, you could be in a coma for all I know if you never speak. Vickie says that I have conversations in my mind and that I  think  I've had them with her; well, maybe she's right; in fact I know she's right sometimes...at least I think she's right sometimes...maybe she's messing with me. But then she's a CPA and accountants and humor generally don't go together...better stop this paragraph before I get in serious trouble.

Malcolm and I actually talked quite a bit, mostly about sports, football in particular. He was an accountant in our division office (come to think of it I don't recall a sense of humor) and we got along quite well; but I know his taciturn behavior grated on his supervisor; she mentioned his little motto about words and silence to me once. Now some people are quiet because they are shy, and some are quiet because they don't want to say something stupid, and some are quiet because they want to appear thoughtful and wise; one of Solomon's proverbs says in effect, "When a fool holds his tongue he is considered a man of wisdom." But now that's a dilemma because who is to know whether the silent person is a person of wisdom or a fool trying to appear  as a person of wisdom?

Actually I don't think much about the subject because I tend to take people at face value, but I do want to share a couple of photos with you and I felt that I needed an intro for the pictures.

Here goes:

 Now I've been watching the live squirrel trying to have a conversation with the decorative squirrel for a few days, and it isn't that the decorative squirrel Don't Say Much, he actually Don't Say Anything. Even Malcolm talked, at least to me about football; but this squirrel won't even talk about nuts or bird seed. I don't think this relationship is going anywhere.