Opus 2024-305: The Need for Noise

As I was enjoying the peace of the predawn breezes an anomaly suddenly intruded.  It was somebody walking their dog down the street in front of me.  I say anomaly because they were wearing this strange vest flickering in various colors.  It was almost like a police car with the blue and the red and the white and such but these were more pastels, pink, violet, gray.  That was fine.  Dog and human made their way past me, did an about face and started back.  The light intruded, but the quiet was not disturbed.  Even the gentle urging toward the dog to stop sniffing and leaving body fluids was not intrusive.  Then I heard it.

She had her radio on.  Of course it could have been an MP3 player, and iPod, her phone, it could have been anything.  The point is it was a noise that did not fit in with the world as I was seeing it.  Eventually, they went on, and my world returned.

There are many things that disrupt our perfect worlds.  As the saying goes, “This too shall pass”.  So develop some patience.  Of course it’s easier when you’re retired and have the rest of the day to decide what you’re going to do.  Or you have the rest of the day to ignore what your wife has told you you have to do.  Either way.

It always amazes me how some people are afraid of the silence.  My parents used to take long drives, and I would venture to guess that they could go for hours without saying anything.  The presence of the other person was enough.  They enjoyed being with each.  They did not have to talk.  In my marriage it’s just the opposite.  If you’re not talking, it seems to imply you don’t care.  I care.  I don’t want to talk.  Silence does not scare me.

I thrive on being alone with my thoughts, because I am not really alone.  I have memories.  I have so many things that I have put into my mind over the years that I have many unresolved harmonies to mull over.  In addition to that, I have the teaching ability of the Holy Spirit to not only bring things to mind that I forgot about but also, I believe, create new thoughts and take me down new roads.  Many of the tangents I take I think of as the prodding of God, and not just me being bored.

So happy silence.  Enjoy the moment.  I’ll wait.  Quietly.

homo unius libri