Conversation, Temptation, and Dorothy Nevill

And now for something completely different. Let’s talk about conversation. You remember what that is, right? It’s a phenomenon that social media usually hinders. It’s that thing that happens when two or more people (not a mob, but maybe three or four) share what is on their minds, back and forth listening to each other, and responding, as much as possible, with respect and courtesy.

Hold that thought.

Celestial Seasonings conversation

Now, have you ever bought a box of Celestial Seasonings Tea and noticed a little “wise” saying printed on the side of the box? I have.

Have you ever felt that one of those little sayings was so important that you just had to cut it off the box and put it on the front of the refrigerator? I have.

Have you ever moved junk from the front of your refrigerator and tacked it up somewhere else in your house, say on the bulletin board above your desk? I have.

Right now, there is little square from a Celestial Seasonings Tea box printed with a wise saying that stares back at me from the bulletin board above my writing desk. It’s doing it right now. It’s only a tiny piece of cardboard with a green border, but its message warns me (in a good way) every time I see it.

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” ~ Dorothy Nevill

I say, “Right on, Dorothy!” By the way, Dorothy, who are you? You must be something special for the Celestial Seasonings Tea company to print your words on their box.

Turns out Dorothy Nevill—may she rest in peace—is special. She was—gasp—a writer! And if Wikipedia is right, she was also a person who might have learned the real art of conversation the hard way. Maybe not. But why, you may ask, do I suspect that? Because of Wikipedia, of course!

What does Wiki say about Dorothy who said what the real art of conversation is?

“Lady Dorothy Fanny Nevill (1 April 1826 in London – 24 March 1913 in London), was an English writer, hostess, horticulturist and plant collector. She was one of five children of Horatio Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford and Mary Fawkener, daughter of William Augustus Fawkener, sometime envoy extraordinary at St Petersburg and close friend of Empress Catherine. She received no formal education, but was tutored by a governess in French, Greek, Italian and Latin. In 1847, she was embroiled in a scandal when caught in a summerhouse with a notorious rake, George Smythe MP, heir to a peerage. Smythe refused to marry her, and her parents’ actions and statements destroyed her reputation.”

[I’d like to know more about that! But I think I’ll read something besides Wiki to find out].

Wiki continues: “In 1847 she married a cousin twenty years her senior, one Reginald Henry Nevill (d. 1878), a grandson of the 1st Earl of Abergavenny and produced six children, only four of whom survived beyond childhood.”

Given those intrigues, Dorothy might have come up with that Celestial Seasonings Tea box quote from her own life experience. Who knows? I’m just sayin’ …

Mmm … leaving unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Not bad advice, especially for, as I keep hearing, “these challenging times.”

See you next time!

Your writer on the wing,
Charlene