Mommy's advice

There's so many of them.
Among them, there's one which stood up from the rest.
And it's that one that I hold it dear to me.
The one I respect and would very much like to stick to it as much as I can.

Mommy said:
If you want to say something, make sure it's something good. If you have nothing good to say, then don't say it. 

I know it not original at all. It might sound lame to others but experience had taught me to think otherwise.
Lemme share with you a story.

Shelly (not real name) was once in the same team as I was, being one from the team member, she tried hard to be one with us. But she has this bad habit, she likes to bad mouth others. It's not like your typical "I don't like this", it's more like "Ewwww... Why must she do this? Don't you think it's stupid to do so?" Sometimes you feel bad for the person, but come to think of it, you'll be self-conscious, you'd think: will she badmouth me as she badmouth others too? So, when times pass, we drifted apart. Then I came to a Facebook status. She was stating what a bad day she was having and the weight she gained. When one of our friends jokingly suggested that she has to cut down on her food consumption from the photos she posted on FB, she went berserk. Needless to say, things did not end well for her. She still here and there, drifting, waiting for someone to approve of her.

Again, her behavior is not for us to judge. But it did help to generate more questions.
Why? Why will this happen? How did it happen? What went wrong?
I would say, it's the matter of the mouth.
It would have been better if Shelly knows that she's causing discomfort among her friends by constantly being pessimistic.
Maybe she has her own clarifications, we won't know.
But my mom's advice rang in my ear.
If you want to say something, make sure it's something good. If you have nothing good to say, then don't say it. 
To put it in context, how good it would be if we were to select what we say.
It would have saved a lot of effort.

However, this advice has its own limits. There are some instance where it is not applicable.
Have a nice day.
:)

Signing off,
JCG