A good deal of what we do in life is talk. The typical person speaks 16,000 words a day (1) at roughly 150 words per minute. With average life expectancy in the United States nearing 80 years (let’s say 75 spent really talking), the average person spends 3,000,000 minutes talking over the course of a lifetime. That’s 50,000 hours, or 2,083 days – almost 6 entire years spent in the act. This is only a rough estimate, of course – politicians probably speak much more, mimes much less – but still, that’s quite a bit of talking.

A lot can be said of what we say, but perhaps even more can be said of how we say things – the way we communicate, our non-verbal cues, our temperament in turbulence. Our messages may change with time and experience, but how we communicate reveals a lot about who we are as individuals. It speaks to our priorities in life, our patience, our generosity at times – at others, our insecurity. Our fear. 

If we could somehow be more aware of how we communicate, perhaps we could communicate better – and perhaps those 3,000,000 minutes could be time spent, not only sharing our thoughts and dreams with others, but bettering ourselves as well. 

My hope is that this site can be a forum to explore how we communicate with each other about the things that matter most – a place to share stories and experiences, and perhaps learn a bit about ourselves along the way.

1) Matthias R. Mehl, Simine Vazire, Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, Richard B. Slatcher, and James W. Pennebaker. Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men? Science 6 July 2007: 317 (5834), 82.