When Do We Ever Say What We Are Actually Thinking?

[pdub]

There's a TV commercial about that, it's pretty funny. There was also a whole movie made about that with Jim Carrey as the star, Liar Liar.

Wouldn't that be fun to do, just say what you were thinking? No holds barred. What would the outcome be? I guess that's how that got to be a movie.

Old folks seem to do it freely, loudly. And I'm getting older. Please God don't let me live long enough to become that way.

There's a throttle linkage hooked up to every car engine. I believe there's one hooked up to our brains, too. In situations, and we've all been there, the mouth is ready to say something that we completely know and believe to be true but somehow the linkage binds up and we say nothing instead. Walking away, there's always the "I should have said that" factor. And it's far better we shouldn't.

[67 Malibu]

In my experience it depends entirely upon whom you are dealing with. But you are right about one thing............the older you get, the easier it is to not sugar-coat things. And you aren't getting any younger.

[Barry Donovan]

I think it is about funerals.
The older one gets, the more they outlive.

analyzing too young to go..

ends up a lot to say.

[DanStokes]

For many years I've worked to say what I mean/am thinking but to say it kindly. Not always easy and sometimes I screw it up.

Dan

[JERICOGTX]

I'm not that old (42) and the filter between my brain and my mouth is rapidly fading away...

[Loren]

I'd love to just say what I think. And have everybody else...not... I've heard enough about what others think to not necessarily want to hear it. See how that works?

I've got a neighbor who used to like to just say what he thought, since he got his ass kicked out of my house now nothing he would say; clever, helpful, or stupid; matters anymore 'cause he ain't here to say it. Since I don't see his car parked in anybody else's driveway lately I've got to believe the market for his-type conversation has dried up most everywhere else too. But since he was the one who seemed to have the need to be around folks and talk his stuff, hasn't he just wound up being the loser for his lack of consideration?

But then...if you just use that "filter" we're all supposed to have, and you have a thought process much like mine, you're just going to wind up sitting there quiet much of the time. How is that living?

I try sometimes to have a "translator" instead. Say what I think but have it then be in a form that imagines how the hearer is going to take it in, and gets a nod instead of a protective or hostile response.

But yeah, the older I get the less I care. And...

"Hey you kids! Get off of my sidewalk! Goddam little hooligans, all of you! Arrgh!"

Remember that guy from your neighborhood? I am becoming him now...

[malc]

Remember that guy from your neighborhood? I am becoming him now...

You need to meet Victor Meldrew...famous for voicing his opinion.....

[Thumpin455]

I can be incredibly offensive, and I can be polite. However, I tend to speak my mind rather than sugar coat it or avoid conflict by not saying it. If there is no benefit to saying it, I usually don't. Most of the "arguments" I get into are not intended to convince the other party, but to enlighten those who are on the periphery watching it all play out. If I don't know or don't have a dog in the fight, I probably won't say anything. If I want to know more about it, I listen to those who do know more than I do. If they're right, I do not argue it, if they're wrong I'll still wait to see where they are going with it. I'll offer my information if it will help, but if I don't know anything about it, I listen.

Everyone who knows me personally will tell you I have no filter, but that I am not unnecessarily abrasive or combative. I can be amused at ignorance and say nothing. If you're spreading disinformation, I will probably challenge you on it. The rest of the time, I like to observe people and see what they will do. I find humor in almost everything humans do.

I'm not quite 50 yet, so I think this attitude and lack of filter came from my first stint in the military. I discovered that after I had been out 7 years and came back in, the USAF got a hell of a lot more politically correct and I didn't quite fit like I did during the cold war years. The new people were appalled at what I said more often than not, because I didn't sugar coat it or try to avoid conflict. Fun times.