Silence

As promised late into the night lastnight, tonight I plan to talk about silence and its importance. The time is 12:55 and I have had a wonderful day. Mental health break from stuff, and it was beautiful today.

This idea of silence was brought to my attention unintentionally by Erik Radio. His ability to use silence in his speech without even knowing what he is doing is something we should all admire. Most of you who read this won't have any idea what I am talking about, but for those few who might just stumble upon this, feel free to back me up.

I will start the topic like this. Silence is one of the most wonderful aspects of music is it not? Think about the power it can take over an audience. After a large chord, a silence before the continuation of a piece can be effective in creating a sense of suspense and anticipation in the audience. When used in other pieces, it creates a calming sense of security and wholeness. I am sure this is going out on a limb, but i feel that in every sense that silence is used in music it enhances, and never decreases the musical integrity. Maybe one could argue that John Cage and his interesting piece that is nothing but silence has no musical integrity, but for the sake of keeping my argument consistant, I am going to say that it does. The point it is getting across is the importance of silence and its ability to create something out of nothing. The emotions that people feel (assuming they feel emotions from this awkward piece) are literally created out of nothing. This silence is almost more powerful in that sense than any sort of musical phrase. There is something that is creating the emotion when a phrase is used.

Anyway, moving on to the real point. Why do we consider silence a bad thing in our every day lives? Maybe we all dont, but in most situations, silences are considered to be awkward. Think about meeting someone for the first time, sitting in the same room, and not speaking. Why is this awkward and why can we not appreciate this time? We have an overwhelming urge to create some sort of noise to occupy the silence so that it is no longer awkward. In doing so, I feel that we create a somewhat more awkward situation by informing the other party that the situation was awkward to begin with. This was a lot more clear lastnight, so this next section might be slightly unclear. Not that any of my blurbs are clear anyway.

I am the queen of awkward silences. I despise silence in conversations and situations more than almost anyone can imagine. I have no idea why this is, and how to fix it, but I wish that I could more than almost anything else. I tend to make things more awkward by opening my mouth and saying something stupid, when the silence itself is not that bad. The intimidation that is felt (at least in my situation) during the silence is very strong. I wish there was a way for me to describe what I am thinking/feeling right now. I guess it is most simply put this way. I wish we could appreciate silence in life. Things are so full of motion and noise and frustration that sometimes the silence should be a welcome treat for our busy minds. Silence helps people think clearly, concentrate on their thoughts, and become connected to one another on a higher level than any other form of communication, at least in my opinion. You know you are truely connected with someone when you can sit in silence and enjoy every second of it. When there are no awkward feelings or situations where the silence prevails, you know things are working.

So, I challenge you all to observe silences with no awkward ideas and to live life appreciating everything, even the silences.

Tell me how it goes, and I will keep you informed if you would like. Lots changes when you start appreciating silence. Silence is one of the most natural forms of music. Imagine sitting under the stars, looking up into the vast darkness with little spots of light penetrating through and what do you hear? Nothing. Maybe the wind rustling through the trees or bushes, but mostly, there is nothing. Silence. Natures way of reassuring you that things are safe.

Oh silence, where would we be without you?