100 Words

The drive was growing tiresome. The Sun was setting. The conversation had played itself out, and the driver and the passenger were thinking desperately to find a topic worthy of breaking the silence.

Finally, the passenger said, "If you could say only one-hundred words each day, what would you say?"

"Well," said the driver, "I would save verbal communication for the phone and the drive-thru, places where you can't communicate any other way. When talking with someone face-to-face, I would write down my words. Do written words count?"

"Yes."

"Oh, that's tough. Then I'd only say what mattered. Things like:"