Sep. 17: On Silence

Today's meditation is about silence. That it is a sound that at times can actually be palpable. Fred White states that there are different kinds and degrees of silence. He lists a town at night, silence that follows a loud and steady sound, reverential silence one experiences in a church or mosque and then the total silence of say a cave or desert. However, I will disagree with the last the absolute silence of a desert. If you really listen a desert isn't silent because moving sand makes a sound, it is just not a loud sound, add wind and desert sands can actually speak to you. To me the most amazing silence I ever experienced was when I was living in Korea. One night there was an air raid drill. Once the sirens went off a city of ten million people went almost completely dark and silent except for the barking of dogs which you never heard above the noise of the city. It was the most amazing thing. I remember thinking that you probably could not get that kind of cooperation from the American people but then that was all pre-911. Now I am not so certain. Other kinds of silence that stand out in my mind. The silence you experience at night watching your child sleeping. The silence of a nighttime hospital waiting room, particularly if that waiting room is outside an ICU. The pregnant pause when you don't get the joke someone just told you. These are just a few of the quick types of silence that I reflected upon. Could probably come up with more but it's late in the week, I have a client due in my office in a few minutes, and my brain is literally fried from to much on my to-do list and not enough hours to do all those things.