Silence - (11/10/08)

ironically, i'm writing this with music in my ears. but i love silence. real silence. it's not just having headphones off. because most of the time with headphones off i'll hear the tv in the other room or a timer going off or the ice cream truck wining across the neighborhood or lines of poetry being muttered to perfection across the room or the phone ringing or the voices in my head screaming that i have too much else to be doing and that i can't just do one thing right now. silencing these voices and distractions can actually be accomplished with music. for me at least. nothing can distract me from exactly what i'm doing when i'm listening to music. but real silence. is there such thing as real silence? one of the most silent times i remember actually wasn't silent, it just wasn't noisy. on the top of the mountain in colorado at camp this summer. just sitting there alone. early in the morning. watching the sunrise. there's still the noise of the river flowing and the first chirping and the wind blowing through the trees, but it's not noisy. the beach is another silent place. you still hear the obnoxious call of the gulls., the crash of the waves on the sand, the trash blowing across the beach, but it's not noisy. early in the morning is another silent time. driving alone. you hear the roar of the engine, the honk of the distant horns of hurried people, the wind blowing against your car, but it's not noisy. or sitting in the back of someone elses car with the music turned up really loud. if you lay your head back and let the thundering bass sink you into the car, it zones out the rest of the sounds. and although it may be loud, it's not noisy. it's one of the most relaxing experiences. or playing the guitar when no one's around. or listening to some simple live acoustic guitar. so i arrive at the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, silence is not the absence of sound, it's the absence of noise.