Silence

I often sit in silence for hours, usually while drinking.  Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I just sat on my couch and listened to the breeze outside for a couple of hours.  There is a point where silence almost becomes a companion.

If I could pick ONE thing that is most wrong with America right now, it would be the fact that we are bombarded with idiocy and babble all day every day, in many cases literally from awaking to going asleep.  How can you think when the TV is on?  How can you settle into deeper thoughts when you never stop listening to music, checking your Facebook and Twitter, and texting?

I remember reading Erich Fromm some years ago, and I think it was in “The Art of Loving” that he opined that if they were simply denied their daily paper for a week, some percentage of the populace would lapse into acute MANIFEST psychosis. Sanity is taken for granted, but need not be.

What would happen to kids nowadays if they had to go a week with NO electronics of any sort?  It would certainly generate HUGE anxiety, and some percentage of them, likewise, would suffer some sort of MANIFEST breakdown.

Unstable systems can be propped up in motion, but fall over when asked to be quiet.

“Who can wait until the dirt settles in the water?” said Lao or Chuang Tzu approximately.  But that is what it takes for clarity.