My Big Mouth (Part 1)

My last semester of college I was wanting to do a cover of Mrs. Robinson by the folk duo Simon and Garfunkel. I decided to Youtube a video of them and see exactly how they played it. Among related searches for the song I was looking for was multiple videos for The Sound of Silence. I had never even heard of the song before, so I clicked play, and then I clicked it again three or four times in a row. There was just something about it that was mesmerizing and provoking, yet depressing at the same time. Its like that song was the grandfather of emo music. A lone acoustic guitar and two harmonized voices singing, “People talking without speaking. People hearing without listening… Hear my words that I might teach you, take my arms that I might reach you…And the signs said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls…And whispered in the sounds of silence.” I didn’t get it, and too be honest I still don’t entirely, but it was about to be an anthem for a valuable learning experience in my life.

At the time I was three weeks from receiving my diploma, and I was sitting at a nicely set table, with nicely dressed people, eating nicely prepared food, awaiting to see which of our graduating seniors will be awarded nice little plastic trophies. A pair of presenters came up to announce the nominees for our classes most outgoing male and female. Now, I had people tell me that they nominated me, but I didn’t believe I would really make the ballot, so I joked about how I knew I was a shoe in for the award since I had done several things to draw people’s attention to myself in the previous years (from the time I took my shirt off at a baseball game to get on the jumbo-tron, to all the times I stood up in the cafeteria and sang “Happy Birthday” to someone).

I was surprised when the announcers said my name as one of the three contestants. I wasn’t so surprised when I won, and to be honest I wasn’t very excited either. I didn’t have a lot of fun that night. In fact there were multiple moments I felt like I stuck a Payless shoe store in my mouth. Thoughts and things I said prior to the awards ceremony ranged from argumentative to immature, and winning only made me more aware of my foolishness. The award should have just been called “The Diarrhea of the Mouth Award”.

I lay in bed that night more angry at myself than tired (and I had been going nonstop that day since six in the morning). Why did I say so many stupid things? Things that got me in trouble with long standing relationships, and things that hindered the growth of new ones. And all I could remember (besides the idiot I had been) was that Proverbs sure did say a lot about watching your mouth. I felt the pain that Solomon meant when he wrote, “A fool's mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul” (Proverbs 18:7). More than ever did I realize the truth that “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise” (Proverbs 10:19). It was time for me to practice being wise.

Now I hope that many of you can glean something from just this single evening’s narrative and these few scriptures, but it is not the end of the story. In fact it was only the beginning of something that I learned, and I wish to share with you over the next few posts, so please stay tuned. In the mean time take a moment to think what is happening when your words are many, and perhaps give some Simon and Garfunkel a spin.