Sometimes I hear men say if you put women together it is impossible for them to leave even a moment to silence. A man can hardly fit a word in. And if a man does the women acknowledge his comment with half a sentence, mix it with another thought, and off they go again. There’s nothing that can be said that would cause a thoughtful pause or impose  a moment to to ponder. But sometimes it’s not so much what you say; it’s when you say it!
I’ve known Margaret for years and years and over that time she’s developed Macular Degeneration. She’s considered blind because she sees so little and the small amount getting through is all a big smear but there are some imaginings getting through and it meets with a lot of memory. One evening not long ago Margaret and I were in a car full of chattering ladies. We were laughing and talking around over each other and adding to previous conversations when the driver announced she planned to drop me off next. Margaret called out above the rest, “Turn at the next street. No not here. Pass this one and turn on the street after it. Yes here. Go up two blocks then turn right, go around the block and you’ll be on the correct side of the street to let Nancy out.” There was sudden silence as the rest of us watched the blind woman tell our driver which way to go!
In the late fifties my father worked on a high tower for the phone company. Often he started his climb up the outside ladder of the tower in the rain but as he climbed up hundreds of feet, the precipitation fell in the form of snow.
When trouble with the equipment surfaced, he worked with open lines while people talked on them. A few times when he opened the line he heard familiar voices; my mother and his mother were taking. He listened for a while, them not knowing of course. After he’d caught the conversation, he’d wait for a delicate moment then he give an elaborate and family specific answer to his mother’s question and asked my mother a personal question of his own. The response was stunned silence. You see women can be silent.  nancymauerman.com