Any married person will tell you that more important than the right to Freedom of Speech is the right to silence. It is a lot like the Miranda rights in the US which has to be read to a person who is being arrested.The silent treatment is very necessary for a fine tuning of a marriage. It allows a sabbatical from daily inane discussions about family, milk prices, elections, neighbors and the help.

Silence is a healer. Silence is the added ice in a not so cool drink. ‘I have often regretted my speech but never my silence’ is an allegedly Xenocratic saying which I use often but really fail in the practice of it.

If all married people did not stop talking to each other for one time or another, some time, occasionally, sporadically, the iceberg on which a marriage stands would melt.    It would do so because of the essential frisson or friction of a vibrant and lively marriage. An entire continent or pedestal of necessary marital ice would float away and sink all marriages.

 

Silence is indeed golden but when the dogs of war eventually fall asleep, love again slips in with a talkative but peaceful bout of renewed chirping between couples. Till the dreadful and really unwanted silence reigns again and brings in the freeze of a cold war let the gentle rapprochement of speech rule the roost.