Saturday, June 29, 2013

Silence


Aeon is a terrific site, dealing with deep concepts in elegant fashion ranging from the limits of science to the notions of being human in a reality we struggle to understand. In Robert Twigger's thoughtful piece titled Desert Silence, he touches upon a subject both profound and right, the power of silence and how it applies to being human.




I experienced this kind of profound silence in Death Valley, prior to becoming mostly deaf, and the impact on yours truly was amazing as it forces one to not think, to be in the present as the only thing one experiences in this kind of environment is one's self, a moment that has reamained with me to the present day. Interestingly enough, now that deafness is part of my equation, I experience silence when taking out my hearing aids in order to get away from the incessant noise of modern society. something that annoys my wife to no end. At the same time, I now understand, in small part, how the deaf remain  forever separate from the world, existing in a kind of silence the hearing will never experience unless they go to the desert and get away from it all, even if it's only for a short time. 

No comments: