Momentary Quiet Imposed

I have a certain difficulty with silence. Yesterday, one of my roommates asked that I not have a movie playing for a while while he recorded video in the living room. I guessed on my own that making noise of any other form, including music, while honoring the letter of his request, would fail to honor the spirit. I eventually decided to listen to music on headphones, but for a while I just existed in silence. I found it to be a trying experience.

I fill most of every day with noise of some kind. I listen to the radio in the shower, and I play movies or episodes of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" as I sleep, and there's lots of the same in between. Being denied the ability to do that leads me to a lot of unfettered thinking, which is not always so pleasant. I may have said this a number of times before, but it probably bears revisiting. I may have had new thoughts, improbable as that is.

Shut

It's a curious thing how much noise we live with. It's each other who we hear much of the time, and it's also machines. Air conditioners, refrigerators and the plumbing around us all create noise that we can't even hear. It has to get turned off when you film, but we can't even detect it. The machines do, though. It's really something to think of how all the noise affects us. I think that we come to need the noise, however much we might think otherwise.

I think we must be scared of the silence, because then there's just our thoughts, or we might actually get something done. People talk about having something on "in the background" as a matter of comfort while working. I don't know if that actually works for them, or if they're just like me. I think I want something on in the background while I work or before I succumb to sleep, but it's really just a counterproductive thing.