An empty barrel makes the loudest noise

“An empty barrel makes the loudest noise” saying reminds me of an adage by my grandmother many years ago.

She told me, those who have nothing to offer are the ones who disturb a lot.

She made an illustration using drums, one empty drum and one drum filled with water.

Grandmother told me to pick up a stick and hit both drums in turns, first one filled with water and the empty one after. At the end of the exercise, she asked if I knew which one made the loudest sound. Low and behold, the answer followed “the empty one was the loudest”. Even miles away people could hear the sound made by the empty drum.

How can I relate this adage to a real-life situation I pondered? Fast forward to years later I recall now one of my neighbors who kept telling everyone willing to listen how he’d become an important and wealthy person when he grew up, how capable he was of achieving this and making to happen that. Well, life always has a different story for everyone alive. Life makes the corrections and adjustments as it unravels. I noticed that person achieved absolutely nothing even close to what he’d said yesteryear ago. But surely, people will remember how he made a lot of noise with all his bragging and his “let’s bet it”. Nothing wrong with dreaming, not at all. But a dream should involve planning and finding the way to make it happen. Apparently, it didn’t occur to that poor fellow. He spent so much time talking that there was no time left to think.

Days later it dawned on me, and I recalled the adage of my grandmother and the drum experiment. Truly, those who are empty make lot of noise while those who are filled with ideas and thoughts are quiet; instead of talking too much they use the time to polish and police their thinking.

People often think quiet people are not overly intelligent, have nothing to say, weak and passive. Not true, in the least. We should never underestimate the quiet ones. They learn, they listen. Their ideas and insights are brilliant and innovative. Too bad, the attention of public is on those who make a lot of noise.

Thinking about the quiet and reserved people, I remembered a friend who at the times of elementary school lived close to my home. Quiet and always the last person to speak or share her opinion in a company of people. No matter the topic being discussed she wouldn’t make her view known until she’d heard from everyone else or unless she’d being asked directly.

Quiet to the core, keeping to herself, she’d been an ardent ambivert who saw what any other person wouldn’t see. Intelligent, knowing the right answer to a question but letting others to speak first, knowledgeable but striving to learn more. I admired her intellectual prowess, and often times I’d lean on her for help whether with a grammar worksheet or an algebra assignment.

Years later, at a youth sensitization program event organized by government, a speaker was introduced with great laudation. Before I’ve seen such accolades bestowed on just one person who is a female only once, when Steve Harvey had introduced Marjorie Harvey to the crowd. Surely it was Natty (her name is Natasha, but I called her Natty, with warmth and very fondly so) greeted with a standing ovation, and with an out of surprise “she’s-my-friend” gesture I was the last person to stop clapping and to take a seat. I met with her after the event and learned, she’s been already a chairperson in a fast-growing multimillion dollar company. Impressed, I gave her a hug lasting for minutes. Here was the person who never said much as a kid, didn’t talk much about her plans. All she ever did was to put herself to her plans quietly, and she made it all loud with her results and achievement.

The household that pounds yam loudly thinks the silent ones don’t eat (African proverb).