Walter Bagehot (here, here, and here) once remarked:
Pascal said that most of the evils of life arose from "man's being unable to sit still in a room"; and though I do not go that length, it is certain that we should have been a far wiser race than we are if we had been readier to sit quiet - we should have known much better the way in which it was best to act when we came to act.
Yesterday, I received a call from a family member informing me that Governor Mark Sanford (here and here) had gone missing.
The media and Sanford's critics were in an uproar about this.
Apparently, the Governor had the nerve to actually take a few days to himself without providing the entire political and journalistic world with his travel itinerary.
It turns out that Governor Sanford, an avid outdoorsman, had gone on a hiking expedition along the Appalachian Trail.
Governor Sanford wanted some time away. He wanted some time to reflect. He wanted some time to think. He wanted some time to be quiet.
We live in an amazingly busy world. Email. Blackberrys. Twitter. Blogs. Cell Phones. 24-Hour news. TV. I-Phones.
The above list could go on-and-on. I am certainly not advocating we return to the days when we actually had to converse with people and do such ridiculous things as read for pleasure (SARCASM ALERT!). However, I am advocating we all think about how often we experience quiet in our daily lives. How often do we sit still? How often do we reflect on the current state of our character? How often do we think about how we think?
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's business partner, once remarked about Buffett, "Half of Warren's time is sitting on his a** reading."
Is it any wonder that when Buffett does choose to act, he seems to make wiser decisions than most. Maybe he is just that smart or that lucky. Or maybe, just maybe, he is able to better avoid the deafening noises that so often accompany bad decisions, misjudgments, and mistakes because of his willingness to sit still and be quiet longer than his peers.
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