The next question for comment: Is silence generally liberating or oppresive to you? Has this changed for you over time?(Click on "comment" below to leave your story/thoughts.)
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A forum for people to share stories about their personal experience with the phenomena of silence.
4 comments:
Gina,
Hey. Iowa John here.
Silence, eh? Off the cuff, I'd define silence as the absence of sound, which is a problem. It's a negative. "Hi, my name is not Bob, I'm not 17 years old, and I'm not a mail carrier."
So, silence is better characterized by things like its placement in a conversation, the focus it brings to other forms of communication, the fear it brings out, the thoughts and feelings it allows to emerge, etc., etc.
Here's one story about silence, or silence+, maybe. I was teaching at an adult literacy center (The Ripken Center). My students were adults. I went off to some teacher retreat thing for a week, and one part of it was a workshop with an Aikido teacher. He said at one point that when someone comes at you with a knife, the correct response is to calmly observe the blade as it approaches you and think, "Hmm, what's this?"
The first day back in class, a usually friendly student came in late to class, banged her books down, and began to loudly challenge me: I never taught her anything, the class was a waste of her time, etc., etc. When she stopped talking, I just looked at her and thought to myself, "Hmm, what's this?" After a few seconds of silence, her faced softened and she talked about her own daughter, who she had just had a fight with, and about whom she was very worried. So, it wasn't only silence that changed the tenor of this moment, it was silence plus attentiveness. But the silence was important.
That's my silence story.
Hello, this is Michael. I think silence may be liberating if it is perceived as a moment to reflect and to listen to the voices inside of you. Even in an absolutely still and silent room, you are alone with your thoughts, which may choose to come in gently and remind you of the better part of your nature, or may arrive by crashing in and demanding action of you that you are reluctant to give. In the latter instance, silence with your inner thoughts may be oppressive if you choose to avoid something you do not want to do; in the former instance, it may be liberating if you use the opportunity to listen to the inner guidance all of us have available.
A question might be, how does silence relate to language? Do we remember how to think without language? Our distant ancestors certainly must have done so and as children we surely pass exist in this state for at least a while. Are we truly silent if our thoughts are organized in words and sentences, whether or not they are spoken aloud?
-Sten
Some days I really find silence to be just plain scary. I actually fear it. Is it running away? Not sure. But I am comforted by pretty much everything BUT silence.
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