August 2, 2025
Welcome to today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day, where we take a moment to pause, reflect, and maybe laugh at ourselves a little. In this post, we’ll explore why sitting alone in silence might be one of the hardest—and most important—skills to master, and we’ll ask the deceptively simple question: What do you have the inability to do? My answers may involve ear muscles and party tricks, but the deeper truth hits closer to home.
Thought of the Day:
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” — Blaise Pascal
Well, Pascal, I hear you loud and clear in my youth and most of my adult life, I could not stand the silence. I always had to have something on in the background if I was alone in a room. If there was a TV in the room that was on 100% of the time. I even had to fall asleep to the noise.
I know I was trying to drown out the chaos in my brain.
There’s something uncomfortable about quiet. It feels like it should be relaxing, but instead, it often turns into a personal interrogation room where your own thoughts ask the tough questions you’ve been avoiding.
If Pascal is right and he usually is then maybe the solution to most of our problems isn’t more stimulation. It’s more stillness. Less scrolling, more silence. Less trying to fix the world, more time learning to sit with ourselves in it.
My best mornings today come when I’m up before my kids. I grab a cup of coffee and sometime just sit and bask in the silence. It is glorious.
Question of the Day:
What do you have the inability to do?
Let’s start with the basics: I cannot roll my tongue. I know some of you can do it without even thinking, like it’s a genetic magic trick. But me? My tongue just stares back at me in the mirror and says, “Nice try.” Same thing with wiggling my ears. Not happening. My ears are strictly stationary. They don’t twitch. They don’t shimmy. They don’t even try.
But the truth is, those are just the fun answers. The real answer might be this: I have the inability to do nothing. Like really nothing. I struggle to be unproductive. I feel guilty when I rest. Even when I try to “relax,” I’m mentally adding things to my to-do list, wondering if I should be using this time better.
And isn’t that connected to the Thought of the Day? Sitting alone in a room quietly isn’t just a physical act—it’s an emotional skill. It requires being okay with not doing, not fixing, not achieving. Just being.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
What do you have the inability to do—silly or serious? Can you sit quietly in a room, or does your brain also start planning tomorrow’s grocery list? Drop a comment below or reply to today’s post on social media.
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