Into Relative Silence

I'll refer you to this article, about the lives of Trappist monks. The questions the author asks of the monks are not particularly good (and he erroneously describes Trappists as "the only Western-based monastic order that still actively practices the 'vow' of silence"; what about the Carthusians, next to whom Trappists are a bunch of chatty Cathies?), but he is wise enough to let them speak for themselves. When asked if silence is a sacrifice, one monk answers:

I would not speak of the “sacrifice of words” except in relatively rare instances when a passion moves me to speak and I struggle to hold my tongue. The silence which is my natural habitat is not created by forcibly sacrificing anything. When a man and woman meet and fall in love they begin to talk. They talk and talk and talk all day long and can't wait to meet again to talk some more. They talk for hours together, and never tire of talking and so talk late into the night, until they become intimate—and then they don't talk anymore. Neither would describe intimacy as “the sacrifice of words” and a monk is not inclined to speak about his intimacy with God in this way. Is silence beneficial for all people? I would say the cultivation of silence is indispensable to being human.