Silence

I like the sound of silence. I mean I like the sound of the word ‘silence’. You can’t hear silence per se, however silence can be measured i.e. not picking up certain waves audible to the human ear is a measure of silence, making it tangible. Hence you can ‘hear’ silence.

Well, there isn’t enough of it around. There is always some kind of noise in the background, though I must say, at the moment I can hear nothing but the intermittent sound of my computer‘s hard disk trying to locate information which I didn’t ask for.

At night when darkness blankets the sky, its companion quietness doesn’t always make an appearance. Natural and man made sound affects fill the air. Barks of a fox and the whipping of air by helicopter rotors are just two examples. Foxes, now that is an animal I could write a whole paragraph on, but then again I’m sure Sir David Attenborough has narrated a whole series of programs on this weird and at times annoying creature.

Back to where we were. I think at times, some people surround themselves by sounds, be it music, the TV, friends chatting away etc. because they are afraid to be left alone with their thoughts. That isn’t always the case, but it does happen. Silence can bring thoughts and memories, which one might wish to suppress, to the fore. But then again, silence can also induce happy thoughts and memories. It just depends on the state of mind one is in. Of course, sounds too provide cues to certain things and can result in a chain of ideas.

It is nice to just sit in silence and let your mind wander. The brain always finds ways of keeping itself occupied, being such a marvellous piece of organic engineering. Is it ever quiet? When the brain is deprived of oxygen for quite a while, yes, otherwise I think not.

It is amazing to think, that even when there is silence all around, there is so much happening and so much can be said without making a sound.