Preface:
I like certain things. Things, as in objects, activities, feelings, living beings, and whatever else I deem a "thing" for this purpose. Most people like things, and some of the things I'll be discussing you may like, too. Or not. Don't care. Here we go. Silence. You don't hear much about the importance of silence (pun intended). And if you really break it down, there's rarely silence...meaning no fucking sound. There's sound, always. But minimalizing the sounds, both exterior and interior, is rare and beautiful. My two children are very loud. They talk, and yell, and scream, and question, and repeat, and fart, and make fart noises, and talk... When they are absent, which is never, my world becomes silent. Yes, there will be noises. Dog noises, furnace noises, wind and cars and birds and planes. But to me, it's silent. Fairly. My mind, at that time of absence, takes a while to plane out. And when it does, it's usually time for sleep. Oddly enough, when I sleep I have to have white noise blasting. I suppose it's equal to having your ears under water--if that was actually a thing. But white noise allows me to forfeit focus on anything, and just let the fuzzy sounds lull me to sleep. If it were entirely silent, I would spaz at any sound throughout the night. A snore, a car, a dog--any of that would wake me and ruin my fucking night. I haven't In a while, but I used to go camping by myself quite a bit. That's a special kind of camping. Just you, your dog, and your thoughts. If you can find a place free of neighbors, that's the ticket. A rolling stream. Small waves breaking. Crickets, cicadas, and frogs. Certainly the sound of fire crackling and whisky being poured into a tin cup. That's generally the time when I can erase worries and agendas and noise. Phone's dead, music is over, dog is asleep, moon is high and so am I. Zero unwanted noise. It's relative these days. Sometimes silence is running to Walgreens by yourself. Sometimes it's sitting in the farthest corner of your yard at 5pm with a drink, hiding. Silence for me, these days, is even going to the gym to walk the track for an hour and listening to "Powerage". The mental cleanse of eliminating noise is monumental. The accompaniment of something delicious to ingest helps, more times than not in my experience. And then, silence typically leads to music. My mind relaxes, then thinks, and thinks, and then becomes restless and needs more relaxation. So that's when it's time for music, to soften the thoughts and lull the mind again, like it had earlier with the entrance of zero sound. Like I said, silence is relative. Sitting outside watching the world go by is silence. Resting in nature with the sounds of moving water and leaves rustling is silence. Sitting in front of the fireplace with a cocktail, writing about silence...is silence.
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AuthorI am Earl. Archives
May 2024
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