Abhorring Silence
I see more and more of us without a gap in our lives. Unless it pings us from our phones, demands the next snap in a streak, or causes the screen in our hands to light up, we do not pay attention to it.
I have begun to encounter folks who live all day with one earbud in, music playing into one side of the head while conversations, instructions, and birdsong struggle for attention on the other.
Every spare moment goes to tasting the torrent of inanity provided by digital speed and wireless access. Perhaps there is one bit, one byte, sluicing by and hidden in the flood of pixelated noise that will change my life for the better. Or perhaps I am only responding to the anxiety of missing out—because my value is now circumscribed by whether I can say that I saw that meme, heard that song, or held that streak.
Gone is the ability to sit still, to bear silence, and to stare into the dark womb of creativity.
Gone is the possibility that waiting unrewarded, thinking unraveled, and listening fettered will allow the maelstrom of the world to settle into clarity.
What finally convinces us to view only the light produced by the sun, to listen only to that which is alive, and to respond only to that which is present?
What chain binds fast enough to keep us in this moment, silent and calm?
~ emrys