Thought-provoking as usual. Thank you for filling my silence with a cogent reminder that I should let my thoughts run loose occasionally instead of always reigning them in.
My husband can stand on a busy street corner and watch the world go by and never get restless. He’s been mistaken for a European before. Americans are even impatient with their own headspace, perhaps.
It is a spiritual maxim of sorts that the answers are in the silence. And it's true, people are petrified of those answers. It's a shame because the more you listen, the more that voice can be heard even amidst other sounds. But if we never train ourselves to hear it, it can barely murmur.
"Without the drugs we can be the person we are afraid to be" Art Alexakis.
As you point out in your essay TJB, drugs can come in many forms, including earbuds, or being obsessed with taking a picture and defiling the moment. Enjoyed the writing and looking forward to hearing what the silence spurs in your mind for future essays.
Right-O, synchronized heart beat on that! It appears as though a consumer culture propagates consuming at all costs. Even consumption of "being." Perhaps this is a far stretch, but the culture seems to be consuming itself. A decade ago, I ran into dire straights financially. Due to the need to survive, I strictly cut my consumption habits. The discovery that my life was dramatically enhanced & enriched by a new paradigm concerning consuming was a lasting & liberating gift. I'm back to my childhood pleasures that cost $0, nature & silence - "being" present without spending $ & without eroding myself. I'm a an older person & a lifelong visual artist. Making art can become VERY expensive. So, I've even returned to the simple pleasure of drawing....
Yes. I noticed it the other day, after helping my mom see a doctor, a specialist, I noticed everyone was heads down, when the sky was clear and the sunlight was something else. A few years ago, when I had to have part of a sidewalk redone, I had to sit there, despite the official red-tape "don't cross it", to warn zombie after zombie to "look up" before walking right into wet concrete. I prayed for the concrete to harden as fast as possible for attention, and a resolve to listen to that "voice", gone soft.
I'm afraid to anyone 22 and less (or even 25 and less), "early 00s" might as well be 1927. It's before they existed in the world, an old era lost in the mist of time
Wow never considered how with the scarcity of silence, it should be considered a luxury - brilliant! Enjoyed this piece - as always - and the footnotes, especially the last one! In my 20s, i llived above a friend of mine who would just go about her days in utter silence. I found it completely unhinged ha, like the idea of silence was an absurd terror. And yet when i quit drinking in my late 20s, suddenly, i was down with silence - still am to this day - love it immensely. When I had my first bout of tinnitus this year, i felt like i'd lost a dear old friend - silence.
After reading this and the comments, I’m attempting to inventory how many moments per day I spend in true silence.
I prepare and eat breakfast in silence but I do look at my phone when I eat breakfast. Curious detail: I eat breakfast in almost darkness. Only two (artificial) flickering candles light up the space.
I shower in silence.
I walk and exercise in silence.
I can feel the technology pull and plead for attention. I can still resist it, but for how long?
I'm a Brit, and I notice that almost everybody walks along with their eyes glued to their phone, and with an ear thing in their ear. I love silence, but there seems to be almost a fear of it: think of how many tv programmes or Youtube videos have (so-called) music droning on in the background even when someone is speaking. I mean: why?! I think we have to practise silence too. One of my favourite quotes, which I try to live by, especially in meetings, is from Salvator Rosa: Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence.
Back before threads were Threads™, I wrote a simple one about silence (https://twitter.com/vitabenes/status/1060478476074041344). I still remember that day, though I tend to forget the lesson of it, too often. Your piece is a good reminder.
Great insight and observation. I didn’t really understand silence until I spent my first hour in a sensory deprivation tank at FloatSpot. Watching my brain grasp on to any, ANY nuance of sound or rhythm in the vacuum was incredible, and then it ultimately created visual fireworks for some amount of time, then gave up and succumbed to the auditory and visual nirvana that is being truly alone.
Somehow, my inner voice is almost always louder than anything else. For that reason, whether a track has lyrics or not, whether I’m with earbuds or not, whether I’m in a work meeting, strolling through the city, commuting, or even having dinner with friends – any surrounding sounds at any moment can become just an accompanying background noise if my inner voice transcends it. I don’t know if that’s a virtue or vice, a curse or a blessing, but one thing for which I’m grateful to it is, any degree of silence is as bearable- or pleasant- as any kind of noise, either in solitude or in amidst the gurgling crowd. Perhaps, controlling one’s inner voice is another topic... btw I’m not mental (I wish to think so). Anyways, great essay, cheers!
Great article. But black and white noise helps me a lot ( crows, street noise), although I prefer without. And yes, great ideas surface while walking in silence!
Thought-provoking as usual. Thank you for filling my silence with a cogent reminder that I should let my thoughts run loose occasionally instead of always reigning them in.
My husband can stand on a busy street corner and watch the world go by and never get restless. He’s been mistaken for a European before. Americans are even impatient with their own headspace, perhaps.
I think I'm getting better on the silence front. I used to become quite restless if I forgot my earphones in the past, but I don't anymore.
It is a spiritual maxim of sorts that the answers are in the silence. And it's true, people are petrified of those answers. It's a shame because the more you listen, the more that voice can be heard even amidst other sounds. But if we never train ourselves to hear it, it can barely murmur.
"Without the drugs we can be the person we are afraid to be" Art Alexakis.
As you point out in your essay TJB, drugs can come in many forms, including earbuds, or being obsessed with taking a picture and defiling the moment. Enjoyed the writing and looking forward to hearing what the silence spurs in your mind for future essays.
I like the riff. An inversion... sort of a utopia.
Right-O, synchronized heart beat on that! It appears as though a consumer culture propagates consuming at all costs. Even consumption of "being." Perhaps this is a far stretch, but the culture seems to be consuming itself. A decade ago, I ran into dire straights financially. Due to the need to survive, I strictly cut my consumption habits. The discovery that my life was dramatically enhanced & enriched by a new paradigm concerning consuming was a lasting & liberating gift. I'm back to my childhood pleasures that cost $0, nature & silence - "being" present without spending $ & without eroding myself. I'm a an older person & a lifelong visual artist. Making art can become VERY expensive. So, I've even returned to the simple pleasure of drawing....
Yes. I noticed it the other day, after helping my mom see a doctor, a specialist, I noticed everyone was heads down, when the sky was clear and the sunlight was something else. A few years ago, when I had to have part of a sidewalk redone, I had to sit there, despite the official red-tape "don't cross it", to warn zombie after zombie to "look up" before walking right into wet concrete. I prayed for the concrete to harden as fast as possible for attention, and a resolve to listen to that "voice", gone soft.
I'm afraid to anyone 22 and less (or even 25 and less), "early 00s" might as well be 1927. It's before they existed in the world, an old era lost in the mist of time
P.S. I *think* you're in your 30s, but i have to remind myself on the daily you aren't 70.
Wow never considered how with the scarcity of silence, it should be considered a luxury - brilliant! Enjoyed this piece - as always - and the footnotes, especially the last one! In my 20s, i llived above a friend of mine who would just go about her days in utter silence. I found it completely unhinged ha, like the idea of silence was an absurd terror. And yet when i quit drinking in my late 20s, suddenly, i was down with silence - still am to this day - love it immensely. When I had my first bout of tinnitus this year, i felt like i'd lost a dear old friend - silence.
After reading this and the comments, I’m attempting to inventory how many moments per day I spend in true silence.
I prepare and eat breakfast in silence but I do look at my phone when I eat breakfast. Curious detail: I eat breakfast in almost darkness. Only two (artificial) flickering candles light up the space.
I shower in silence.
I walk and exercise in silence.
I can feel the technology pull and plead for attention. I can still resist it, but for how long?
I'm a Brit, and I notice that almost everybody walks along with their eyes glued to their phone, and with an ear thing in their ear. I love silence, but there seems to be almost a fear of it: think of how many tv programmes or Youtube videos have (so-called) music droning on in the background even when someone is speaking. I mean: why?! I think we have to practise silence too. One of my favourite quotes, which I try to live by, especially in meetings, is from Salvator Rosa: Be silent, unless what you have to say is better than silence.
Back before threads were Threads™, I wrote a simple one about silence (https://twitter.com/vitabenes/status/1060478476074041344). I still remember that day, though I tend to forget the lesson of it, too often. Your piece is a good reminder.
Great insight and observation. I didn’t really understand silence until I spent my first hour in a sensory deprivation tank at FloatSpot. Watching my brain grasp on to any, ANY nuance of sound or rhythm in the vacuum was incredible, and then it ultimately created visual fireworks for some amount of time, then gave up and succumbed to the auditory and visual nirvana that is being truly alone.
Somehow, my inner voice is almost always louder than anything else. For that reason, whether a track has lyrics or not, whether I’m with earbuds or not, whether I’m in a work meeting, strolling through the city, commuting, or even having dinner with friends – any surrounding sounds at any moment can become just an accompanying background noise if my inner voice transcends it. I don’t know if that’s a virtue or vice, a curse or a blessing, but one thing for which I’m grateful to it is, any degree of silence is as bearable- or pleasant- as any kind of noise, either in solitude or in amidst the gurgling crowd. Perhaps, controlling one’s inner voice is another topic... btw I’m not mental (I wish to think so). Anyways, great essay, cheers!
Great article. But black and white noise helps me a lot ( crows, street noise), although I prefer without. And yes, great ideas surface while walking in silence!