Mark Twain said, “A person who won’t read has no advantage over a person who can’t read.”
Might we all agree that someone who chooses not to speak lacks any superiority to one who is physically unable to do so?
Some of us are afraid to talk in a group or remember when we lacked the courage to voice our ideas, opinions, and knowledge. According to the National Social Anxiety Center:
The fear of public speaking is the most common phobia ahead of death, spiders, or heights. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia, affects about 40% of the population. The underlying fear is judgment or negative evaluation by others.
Think about those terrified of expressing themselves at parties, raising a hand in class, and voicing a difference of opinion. How many of us do not talk back to a critical parent or fail to say no to someone whose approval, affection, or assistance means everything to us?
Consider all the living creatures without words. They sometimes sting or bite, sing or chatter, bark or growl, lick our faces, purr, meow, cluck, or cuddle.
The wind may move a tree’s branches and rustle its leaves. Fish splash in the water, and flowers offer scent, but silence prevails.
Some are dangerous, but many are essential to continuing human life on our shared planet. Yet none use language to remind us of their importance in such activities as pollination or the food chain that sustains every creaturely link.
The Monarch Butterfly does not promote its disappearing beauty. Our nonhuman neighbors do not fight back despite the destruction of their habitat via deforestation, hunting, and climate change.
Our lack of action in deeds and words on their behalf is also a failure to defend ourselves in the world we both need and enjoy.
For as long as I can recall, trepidation, hesitation, self-consciousness, shame, and the attached insecurity have been considered personal matters, silencing the afflicted first and motivating trips to therapy after much unhappiness. They singled out one person at a time. These days, they no longer begin and end with us alone.
PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY
The late Mari Ruti wrote, “We live in a world of fragile things.” We are touched by the delicacy of many of them, not least those found in our immediate surroundings.
Most of us have a residence we care for along with our small, treasured, non-living objects and necessary spaces. Even a desk in a cubicle at the office.
From a larger perspective, however, our home doesn’t end at our doorstep, garden, or on a neighborhood walk with our beloved children and pets.
Indeed, every goodness exists only because we live within a web of attachments, so long as those attachments survive, so long as we — each of us — ensure their survival and bolster our security and joy by making it so.
As John Donne wrote 400 years ago,
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Global study of 71,000 animal species finds 48% are declining
Fact Sheet: Global Species Decline
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The two photos are the work of the superb photographic artist Laura Hedien, with her permission: Laura Hedien Official Website.
The first is a King Penguin Profile on South Georgia Island, 2022.
The second is a Male Prairie Chicken, Wisconsin Rapids, May 2023.
I love how you linked a fear of public speaking with a fear of speaking up for our planet. Indeed, for every person who HAS had the courage to speak up on behalf of the planet, they have been trashed in the media and on social media as “another environmental kook”, and no one wants to be singled out for that, so we stay silent, to guard our own comfort levels and “reputations”.
There is so much we CAN be doing to help our planet, and one of those things is to speak with our wallets.
We buy too much stuff that we really don’t need, and we buy stuff that is terrible for the environment. We love, love plastics, plus items that are packaged in it. We love too many products that wreak havoc on our planet both in the production and transport of those items to us, not to mention when we tire of them and get rid of them. The creation of plastics coincided with a huge increase in our consumerism and the creation of a “throw-away” mentality.
We can speak with our wallets by NOT buying so much stuff, and by trying to choose items that come in more environmentally friendly packaging. For those brave enough, we can even contact the manufacturers to ask for changes! We can let them know that we’re switching away from their product because of that environmentally conscious decision, and if the company switches their packaging we’ll consider coming back.
Thank you, Tamara. Those are exactly the kinds of actions, among others, I was hoping readers would conclude were available from what I wrote — the kinds of steps beyond speech or in addition to speech. As to fear, given the current conditions, we need only wait a short time to confront the fear and destruction at our doorstep. And, if we have children or grandchildren, realize they will live through worse.
Exactly! There are a lot of people working on a grassroots level to try to do what they can for the environment, but it will take even more people who could vote with their wallets.
I love the reminders about interdependencies and this phrase really spoke to me, Dr. Stein: …”every goodness exists only because we live within a web of attachments.” Thank you, thank you. (And of course, I love a post with stunning photos courtesy of Laura Hedien.) 💕
Thanks, Vicki. Unfortunately, I sometimes have the sense that no matter how well the message is delivered, too few want to hear it or are too terrified to believe what they hear. We have little time before a return to this summer’s heat begins to be wished for as relief from what is to come.
What a unique reminder about speaking up and speaking out! I typically don’t have qualms about speaking in public but I do often need reminders to use my voice in ways that informs others to be mindful of the choices we make, who and what we choose to support, and the influences an individual (many individuals) can make. Thank you Dr. Stein!
There are many ways to act, Deb. It appears the ostrich, metaphorically speaking, is not an endangered creature. Too many hide from the message. To the good, many others, including young people recognize the danger and take action. I am glad to know you will be on the team to make sure our beautiful planet and all the creatures on it prosper.
Dr. Stein, I like the way you put it: “Indeed, every goodness exists only because we live within a web of attachments, so long as those attachments survive, so long as we — each of us — ensure their survival and bolster our security and joy by making it so.” Humanity’s systems of production and supply chains give us a false sense of our place within human society and, more broadly, Earth’s web of life.
Thank you, Rosaliene. I can only hope this message and all the similar messages such as those you have written, reach an audience willing to defend the planet.
I live in hope, too, Dr. Stein.
I’m reading Neil Theise’s Notes on Complexity. Where I left off yesterday is almost eerily in line with what you’ve written here, particularly around how “every goodness exists only because we live within a web of attachments.” I find it encouraging to read all these words, and to grow, with each related word I read, a little better sense how to speak more eloquently to the fullness of the web instead of/in addition to any (web-fractional) thread(s). Thank you.
A lovely and heartening comment, Deborah. Keenly insightful. Thank you.