Naemanson - I, being also new (and not a natural joiner), understand and echo your sentiments. I appreciate the welcoming nature of the long time members here, but fitting in takes time for some. And that's OK. But there are times when silence feels appropriate to me as a new comer. Some threads are like conversation that have been going on for quite a while. And to speak would be not only rude, but foolish. It's so easy to misconstrue words taken out of context, after all, or feel like a rube for stating the obvious. And like the old saying goes - "it is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and confirm it". Or something like that.

To return to the TFTD (and a good one, at that)the problem, at times, is how best to break the silence. Words once spoken cannot be taken back. And, although words alone never proved a friend a friend or guaranteed one's intentions, I think that to declare oneself is imperative. And to choose ones words carefully an absolute necessity. Saying the words - whether in support of a friend, in defense of an idea, or in opposition to a foe - has a power in and of itself. As does silence.