It is commonly considered rude to keep silent in the company of others, but voluntary silence connects rather than distances us from others whose individual differences temporarily fade away creating a shared feeling of harmony and oneness.
Each person, no matter how old, has an important work to do. This good work not only accomplishes something needed in the world, but completes something in us. The work we do in the world, when it is true vocation, always corresponds in some mysterious way to the work that goes on within us.