Silence

Watching the French film Lemming at the theatre around the corner, I suddenly was aware there was no background music. The wind in the trees, the coffee percolating, the whir of the lettuce dryer could all be heard under quiet conversation or no conversation at all. The only music was when something bad was about to happen, jarring the audience almost as much the event itself.

I thought of the air for Daiken air conditioners that I saw in Syria. There was a mime, no music, no voice over, contrasting to the usual hysteria of TV adverts. Then they showed the 3ftx1ftx4in wall mounted air conditioner and said, “Celebrating five years of silence.”

Silence, is it possible?

When I write I usually have music on. In the morning it is a cock that wakes me and if I don’t hear him, it could be garbage truck or the street cleaner that acts as an alarm clock. Even if those fail, voices of neighbors wishing each other good morning will do it.

In the middle of the night the frigo hums letting me know it is doing a good job in keeping my food cold. Thank you!

Climbing to Montsegur http://www.citaenet.com/montsegur with Robin, Ruth and Barbara last week (Make sure you look at the site to get an idea of the height) R&R were ahead of me, B behind, all out of sight. I was alone on the path. No traffic was close enough to hear. However, birds sang and somewhere near bees buzzed. A light breeze ruffled the leaves. This was as silent as it gets, but it was anything but silent.

I tried an experiment by laying still, windows closed, TV and radio off, doing nothing. This is not meditation but listening to quiet. My mind wanders to old cloisters with sisters who took the vow of silence. Could I do that? I doubt it. What I like is the various noises that indicates life is around me, crowing, singing, buzzing, humming.