“Do you think they have them there?” I asked my daughter as we pulled out of the driveway, going to find a little sock like thingy that attachs to the key ring and holds the car remote with the broken plastic piece that allows you to normally attach it to the key ring.
Hannah, texting while answering me, “I don’t know everything in their inventory. We’ll have to see.”
“Ah,” I said, “but we expect you to know these things as you are the only one of us who has been there.”
She put down her phone and stared at me suspiciously, “And who is this “we” who expects me to know this?”
“Just me, myself and I,” I countered, thrilled to have that comeback.
She smiled and picked back up her phone that had buzzed. “That would be the trio that has the crazy conversations.”
She knows me too well. I am notorious for talking to myself, arguing with myself, questioning myself, answering myself, and maintaining a running conversation with just me, myself and I. When I drive, I constantly talk to cars and streetlights. I talk to the computer when it doesn’t do what I want it to do or when I’m trying to figure out what to do when I hit something I shouldn’t and the screen does its own thing. I talk to the cats, but they listen and sometimes meow back.
When my office was a cubicle in a large room with others, my poor coworkers were constantly saying “What?” or “Are you talking to me or you?” When one was moved to another area he told me he had picked up my habit and now others were always asking him those questions. When I told him I was sorry to have passed that on, he said, “Actually, I’m not, because it’s helped me sometimes.”
I think, seriously, that I am ADD and self-talk helps me focus on what I need to do, my thought process, my action plan one step at a time. If I don’t talk myself through my tasks, I get lost as my mind flits, runs, flirts and wrestles with dozens of unrelated and irrelevant thoughts and I find myself off task, off track, out of focus and floundering to get back to whatever it was I was supposed to be doing, or thinking. I seem to only be focused when I am writing or talking – only at those times do the flighty trio of me, myself and I somewhat collaborate and stay, if not on the same line, at least on the same page.
I have had people tell me this should make me a quick comeback person, but that is so not true for me. I rarely, as in never, have quick comebacks. I’m the person who thinks of the comeback at 4 in the morning three weeks later. And by then it is so good that I could kick myself for not having it when it could have been useful! I wonder if talking to myself so much makes it difficult for me to respond in a timely manner to others? I seem to fail miserably at sparkly social interaction outside my very own trio. Someone gave me a magnet one time that said, “I live in my own little world, but it’s okay – they know me there.” I can identify with that one.
I also talk aloud to the Lord – Jesus Christ – and I know with all my heart He listens.
I don’t buy into the positive self-talk stuff but I do buy into what God says about who we are and His promises. When I googled talking to oneself aloud, however, this little tidbit came up. “When you talk out loud to yourself you cause yourself to focus intently on the challenge, situation, or circumstance. This activity increases the likelihood of obtaining a desirable solution more quickly. It is easy to daydream nonproductively for an hour or two, but it only wastes time and doesn’t give you the results you’d like to have. It is incredibly powerful hearing your own voice emotionally proclaiming what you intend and expect to accomplish. Talking out loud to yourself can go a long way in helping you to move on.”
— Bill Wayne (from The Power of Talking Out Loud to Yourself)
I actually like that because to me it makes sense.
As Hannah, who is a student driver, was driving the other day a car seemed as if it were going to pull out in front of her.
“No, car, don’t you do that!” she said and then glanced at me, grinning. “Don’t say anything.”
I couldn’t because I was laughing.
When we came to the stoplight she looked over at me and laughed. “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be just like you, aren’t I? I’m already talking to cars and I don’t even have my license.”
And the trio approves.
Patti Wade 