Over the weekend, our writing group was given the prompt to write about any American myth. Here's what I wrote.
We Americans
love our freedom of speech.
We think our
freedom of speech is not only a good thing, but a sacred thing.
Words,
opinions and thoughts are our holy trinity, and
We consecrate
them and shoot them like arrows through the air.
Does it
matter where they land or who they pierce?
Do we care?
Are wounds
just a necessary casualty of freedom of speech?
Is that ok?
I don’t
know.
How about
the freedom to shut up?
Wouldn’t
that create a better, kinder world?
Shut up and
think about it.
The freedom
to stay off-line for a bit and shut up
The freedom
to hear a difference without an editorial and shut up.
The freedom
to take our labels and our categories and shut up.
The freedom
to love our neighbor without advertising our goodness.
The freedom
to live and do and be and to shut up and help others to do the same.
The freedom
to quietly be together
To listen
around bonfires
To hear
music and stories
To sit in a
sunbeam
With a
friend
With a book
With a glass
of water
And shut up.
The freedom
to take the cotton out of our ears
And stick it
in our mouths.
Is this too
harsh?
I’ve never
been much inspired by the sound of my voice,
But a big
bowl of shut up in the morning keeps me regular
And feeds me
– heart, mind and soul.
No speech
required.
