Dear Talkers,

This weekend I was reminded of the Three Sieves. I’m not sure where the three sieves came from–some people say they came from Socrates–but I can see why they’ve been passed down through the years. They remind us that we should always be careful with what we say. To help us, we should pass everything we say through three sieves (a sieve is like a filter. Remember when we used the Sieve of Eratosthenes to filter out all the composite numbers through 100.).

The first sieve is to ask ourselves if what we’re about to say is true. The second sieve is to ask if what we’re about to say is kind. And the last sieve is to ask if what we want to say is necessary. If our words can pass through all of these sieves–if we can be sure that they’re true, that they’re kind, and that they’re necessary–then we truly have something meaningful to share with the world. If not, we should probably leave it unsaid.

I can’t wait to hear your true, kind, and necessary words today,

Mr. Heimbuck