Ahhh, silence. I enjoy my five minutes of it before it ends or I fall asleep tonight. I enjoy all the silence I get. Tonight I get five minutes. I love the sounds during quiet. The sounds of the wind rattling the windows, the plastic blinds clicking together, my roommate typing keys, doors shutting and people walking in the hallway. And then she realizes it's quiet and turns on the fan. I don't enjoy the fan as much, but I handle it, like I handle the tv the rest of the time. From eight in the morning till about 12 at night, most days it's on. I don't enjoy it, but I handle it, although I much prefer the quiet and the little sounds that come along with it. At least I can still hear the train whistles over the fan. The enthusiastic whirrs can't drown out the haunting wail of the trains. They are my escape at night, if I cannot see moonlight. I deal with the constant noise for those darling pieces of quiet. I say silence, but it's never silent, truly. I love the little sounds you sometimes miss when the tv is on or the radio is blaring. I love the elegant sounds of papers shuffling, the scrape of paper edges as you turn pages, the scratches of pen on paper. When it's quiet you're so much more aware of not only the sounds, but all of the surroundings- the way the setting sun is making the carpet golden or the fact that those plastic blinds are moving ever so slightly. Typing becomes its own rhythm, your clothes rubbing against your desk are their own song. You are secretive, not to be found out by any sound coming from behind the door except soft typing, the sounds of socks rubbing carpet, or a dresser drawer opening and closing. I take it when I can get it, and when I can't get it (like now), I blast wailing, haunting music into my ears. Music that understands the need for soft, for not drowning out, for sometimes embracing the quiet. But it is silly, I use it to drown out course words from the tv, words that don't appreciate quiet. But better to have loud, soft music than noise filling meaningless in the background, right?
*Like a lot of people, my roommate can't have quiet. It makes me super sad, cause I really think she's missing out, but I'm not saying that it makes me mad when people have constant background noise, I just want to say that some quiet can be a marvelous thing.
Have a beautiful day!
-P
oooh. I LIKE it.
ReplyDeleteThis morning while it was still dark I was talking to Denis on skype and I made him stop talking to listen to the call to prayer coming in on the wind- I can only hear it in the mornings if the wind is blowing the right way. But there's something so beautiful about that quiet plea breaking the silence, into the darkness in the morning- but it's like what you're saying; you can't hear it if you have something like a fan on. It's good to be silent sometimes.