Contempt in the act of speaking*

Nobody reads anymore.
Have you noticed that? 
Perhaps it is because there is too much to read.

If you go to Gutenburg you can download books in Chinese, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. There are also books in Mayan and Middle English. 

I didn’t know people still spoke Mayan.

Although people speak. A lot. Have you noticed that?

Did you ever know someone who speaks and speaks and speaks? Like an unstoppable wind that passes through a crevice and collects pitch from sharp edges. Or a toilet roll that trips down a flight of stairs and just keeps on rolling, making more mess as it unwinds.

There’s a theory that sound waves don't dissipate - they travel the world and get dispersed, lose energy, become barely audible. But never disappear completely. 

Like a bad memory that begs to be forgotten or those copper coins that collect at the bottom of your purse.

But where was I?

No one reads. Everyone talks. Hardly anyone really listens.

Imagine if things were different.

If most people read and everyone listened with their ears, hearts and minds wide open.

How do you think it would change the world?

*From Friedrich Nietzsche, who once said: “That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts. There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking.”