12.12.2009

The Value of Silence

We live in a noisy world.

Forget the birds; we wake up in the morning to the blare of car horns and the morning news, to the ringing of cell phones and alarm clocks. We are a people of talk radio and loud music. We are a society of interminable sound.

The cacophony of our lives consumes us. An hour, ten minutes, even a few moments without sound is almost unimaginable. Silence has become terrifying. I mean, picture it: a family eating in silence; a date where no one is talking; a night when the power is out. The accompanying emotion is always negative--tension, awkwardness, discomfort, even fear...


But it is easy to forget the fact that noise has become our constant companion. We go on with our surround-sound lives, completely at home with the ever-rising decibel levels necessary for our survival. We forget, and in fact have forgotten, the value of silence.

Tonight I had the chance to spend some quality time with someone with whom I can talk to for hours non-stop. Yet miraculously, this person is also someone who I can spend long periods of time with without saying a word. And with this person, I realize, unfailingly, every single time, that it's not necessary to always have something to say. We don't always have to contribute to the noise.

My mother taught me that the man I marry must be someone I can easily talk to, someone I can carry a good conversation with. I think I've found that that's only one of the essentials. The other is that that person should also be someone I can sit quietly with, without feeling the need to fill in the hush. 

There is something almost sacred about a moment of silence. There's something utterly beautiful about being able to share it with someone else. :)

5 comments:

  1. yii hii! :p just assuring you that people read what you write.

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  2. The last sentence hits me. Sharing a silence with someone, like, walking together on your way home or just sitting beside each other without saying anything-- not being cheesy or anything, but ever since I realized it I always consider it as a romantic and meaningful moment. :)

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  3. man i wish that guy was me.

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  4. well, it's silence which speaks out that which cannot even be expressed by millions of words.

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  5. silence could change things as it could trigger paranoia, looking at it at a whole different angle.

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