Silence

For Lent I’m trying something new.  And for a true music-phile like myself, it might seem unconscionable but the rewards look like it is worth it.  And what is that?

I am retiring my mp3 player – no music for Lent.  Welll… not totally, but for the purposes of listening for no other reason than to listen; than to fill in negative aural space, I am retiring music.  For purposes of getting the last bit of my album together, sure, I’m going to be listening because I have to, but other than that – nope.

Why?  For silence.  Have you experienced true silence, where there is no noise?  It is a truly awesome experience, like drinking pure water, like watching stars on a pitch black night.  There is only purity, no noise, no distractions.

Our time is devoted to distractions.  Advertisements bombard our visual space all the time on the computer.  TV is a constant stream of noise between the frivolous programming and never-ending commercials.  Driving in the car is never in silence but always blaring music, news, advertisements – all perpetuating our social norms.  This has affected our eating where we are constantly grazing from morning to night.  Our social schedules are so busy and convoluted, that we only interact at the most superficial level through artificial means.  If we live an average modern existence, how often do we experience silence?  Aren’t we constantly cradled by modern man’s creation from morning to night, from cradle to grave?  What are we hiding from?

I conjecture that we are running from God.  In our modern world, all of our noise points to the finite, what is possible, what is tangible.  But in silence, there is the infinite.  Silently the universe expands and we begin to contemplate the eternal.  Without distractions, we are faced with the infinite depth of the creator as we stare across the great chasm of silence.

Hopefully by now you realize that silence by my definition is not the dictionary’s definition of silence.  It is not a mere lack of audio.  I am talking about how we as a society, as a race, continue to look to ourselves for fulfillment and further bolster this false reality that we are indomitable rather than looking beyond ourselves to a purpose other than our own self-referential goals; beyond our finite existence.  When we experience silence, I believe that we see that we are not completely finite as we believe that we are.  Maybe we are a part of that infinite silence.

So, I am hoping that by foregoing the distractions of music during the day that I might have my ears open to hear right at the edge of the underlying office chatter that the silence is beckoning me.

God bless,

Sven