That is my personal motto. It is Latin for "See all, hear all, say nothing". Technically, it's not entirely mine. It was one of the many personal motto's of Queen Elizabeth I, and hers was just "Video Et Taceo" which is "See all, say nothing". I added the "Et Audio" when I developed it as my motto.
I first learned of it while reading a book about the quintessential English queen in junior high school. I'm a big reader, and picked the book off the shelf at random one day during English class. My teacher at the time, Mr. Ardapple (Yes, his real name. You don't forget a name like that.) had a small, personal collection of historic fiction books in his classroom that any student was welcome to borrow, or even keep, and he gave us as an assignment a book report on any one of the books in his collection.
Well, long story short (I know, "To late!"), the book I picked was "The Story of Good Queen Bess". That was the beginning of my love affair (for lack of a better term) with the 16Th century queen, and I have been watching movies, television shows, and reading books about her ever since, and of course, my annual holy pilgrimage to the Elizabethan Renaissance Pleasure Faire (http://www.norcalrenfaire.org/index.html) which I recommend to all of you reading this.
Anyway, the philosophy of "See all, hear all, say nothing" is one that has helped me navigate many of the travails I have faced in my life. The only one I have the most trouble with is the "say nothing" part, but I like to think I'm getting better.
Speaking of "getting better", here is a favorite Cass Elliot song of mine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aORRetw7arM, I hope you like it to.
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