Most of us have (I suspect) at one time or another said something out of ignorance, anger, or other quick emotional reactions that wound up calling us acute embarrassment. Perhaps it was making a comment about a third party to someone who, unbeknownst to us, was a friend of said party. I've often spoken in haste without asking questions that would've spared me some humiliation.

Anyone who's take a class in communications knows there are three basic parties to any communication: sender, receiver, and method of communication. We've recently had to get used to Twitter being used as an official means of communicating information, whether or not 140-character tweets do an adequate job of getting the intended message across. Those of us who have a sentimental streak may yearn for the days when official announcements from the White House were delivered from a press secretary speaking from behind a podium. However, it's unlikely that we'll see those days return any time soon. It appears that life is accelerating, in the pace of change and especially in the speed with which we can send messages. Forethought and personal consideration sometimes get lost in the process. While I can write some of this off to my advancing age, I suspect there are many others who forget, "speak in haste, repent at leisure."

I created a character some years ago named Roy Prater. He's an emotionally wounded warrior in the corporate world and he's never been honest about the depth of his wounds. He meets a physically wounded young woman under circumstances that cause him no small amount of anxiety. In fact, it's his tendency to rush to judgment and speak thoughtlessly that puts him in the doghouse. It's only when he reveals himself over a period of weeks to her that their relationship settles onto a solid foundation.

"Take Five" in Tangled Woods and Dark Waters shows how music can become a Proustian vehicle that revives memories of an earlier, more innocent time in the life of a wounded man.