Talk is not cheap

“When my grandmother turned 90 years of age,” writes comedian Soupy Sales, “she went to her doctor for an examination and he said, ‘You’re doing wonderful, you’re in great shape. I want you walking five miles a day.’ ‘Okay,’ she said. She’s 95 today we don’t know where the hell she is!”

I relate this nice little anecdote because “walk” and “talk” not only have a similar phonetic sound, they also carry a similar negative connotation. You walk hurriedly and you increase your chances of stumbling and falling on your face; you talk rashly and you raise your risk of saying something offensive or untrue.

Let me focus on a subject topical in the noisy political world—the art of talking, quality use of the power of speech, of positively exercising one’s tongue to achieve a desired good and evade a quagmire of nonsensical thoughts.

Very often, what transforms innocuous talk into asininity or bellicose talk into unmitigated disaster is the talker’s frame of mind or state of emotion. When in control of his faculties, he will talk rationally, calmly, graciously. But all serenity, reasonableness and graciousness will decamp and be replaced by impetuousness, belligerence and crudity when he loses equanimity, succumbs to pressure and panic, and is wounded by a perceived affront to his person or values.

With power of speech, to paraphrase Spiderman, comes great responsibility. You don’t shoot off your mouth unthinkingly, especially since the words will not only tell who you are and what you stand for but also what to make of the people identified with you.

That’s why talking is an art. It’s a function that must be exercised with great intelligence because it tells people what to make of you—a man deserving to be lent an ear, or a man just a waste of time to trouble with, period.

So how to exercise tongue power?  With care, total concentration, and more than superficial knowledge of what you dare or deign talk about. If serious talk, prepare; if informal, choose words carefully. But whether talking formally or just shooting the breeze, don’t get lost like Soupy’s grandmother. Exactly FVR’s advice to Duterte, and mine, too.

Duterte sounds off fast, unrestrained in his talk and wild expletives. He is bound to stumble and commit errors somewhere, somehow, with grave consequences to him and to us all.

My take is he thinks he’s still before barangay masses. That’s why his talk consists mainly of one-liners that shock and awe, with one unvarying theme—drugs, drugs, drugs.

How many times has he delivered a speech since becoming president? I wonder if any of these will merit a place in an anthology of great speeches by Philippine presidents.

Gualberto B. Lumauig ([email protected]) is a past president of the UST Philosophy and Letters Foundation, and a former governor and congressman of Ifugao.