I've been told through my lifetime that it's okay to talk to oneself, as long as you're not also answering yourself. Supposedly, carrying on conversations with one's self is some kind of sign of insanity. I have also heard that it is good to "keep one's own counsel." So which is it and is there a special way to do or not do that?
As was usual especially when I was younger, I took exception to generally accepted sayings, because many of them didn't make much sense to me. I didn't pay it much attention though, until one day....
I was walking down a street in Tacoma one summer in the early 1970s thinking about all that. I had a problem to work out but no one to talk to. So I figured, what the hell, and I started talking to myself, openly, there on the sidewalk. The neighborhood street was mostly empty so it wasn't like anyone was around to pay attention and, this was before cell phones so yes, I would have looked nuts.
I started talking aloud about the issue.,Then, I started answering myself, just to test out the theory and if I would go nuts. It was about a 10-15 minute conversation while I walked (I seem to remember hiding it as I passed someone on the street, at one point).
I simply took one side and then I just took the other side, segregating my thought processes; much as I had done since childhood in playing chess by myself (since no one would ever play chess with me; checkers, chutes and ladders, monopoly, yes, but not chess).
I actually came to a quite good realization and answer by the end of my literal, one on one conversation. So there's something to be said for talking to oneself... and getting answers.
Now, as to my possible ensuing insanity from that event. Well, I leave that up to you, my acquaintances, my friends, and my reading public.
My family you see, already knows I'm nuts....
