Silence communicates, but the messages vary. The silence of retreat is the sulking attitude which says, "I don't need to talk to you. I'll just think my own thoughts and isolate myself from you." The silence of anger is the attempt to get even, to lash out by keeping thoughts within, to refuse to give one the pleasure of company. Then there is the silence of awkwardness which almost shouts, "Help! Let me out of here! I don't know what to say! Somebody say something!" There is also the silence of support. Instead of filling up time with small talk, that silence says: "I want to know how you feel about yourself, your failures, your accomplishments, your future plans." What a great experience to be on the other end of that kind of silence!
-Page 50 of "The art of talking so that people will Listen" by Paul W. Swets foreword by Norman Vincent Peale
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