On Silence in a Machine Age

"and silence, like a poultice, comes to heal the blows of sound."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that with out listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure."
Henri Nouwen

In the last 30 years society has been seduced and indoctrinated with sound from machines. An alarm clock wakes us up, the TV or radio is on, the ipod goes into the ear and fills our heads with endless sounds. We fire up the computer and off we go on another machine. Then the kids are beyond plugged in: video games, phones and the constant texting, more TV and movies. Whew just writing it is exhausting and also kind of laughable, here I am on a machine, it is 8 PM and I should be getting ready for bed.

Almost everyone that I see, except for the retired folks, wants to have more hours in their day. Presto, chango, can do! Take a vow of limiting the machine time and viola! more hours magically appear in the day. Once I was working with a couple and the wife complained

"We rarely have heart to heart conversations anymore."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"He comes home from work and goes directly to the workshop where he has a radio and a TV and then he comes in to have dinner and watches TV until he goes to bed."

"Let's call in your husband for the next session" and we did. When he came in I had her repeat what she told me.

He said, "I think she is grossly exaggerating, it's not that bad."

"Fine," I said, "why don't you record how many hours a week you are watching TV."

The following week he came in and announced, "seems like I am watching TV over 40 hours a week." Then he laughed and I laughed.

"I have a full time job and another full time job watching TV."

Most people are fairly unconscious about their viewing and listening habits, it is only when asked to track those habits that awareness dawns.  The same is true about other habits like eating, exercising and drinking, etc. Change is only possible when someone really wants to change. Getting someone motivated to change is the interesting part. Change can only come about if the person starts believing what is to be changed is going to be good for them or necessary for their marriage or health. If they don't buy it, nothing will change.

My humble opinion is that  many adults and children are unconscious much of the time, captivated by machines. So, how do we motivate people away from their machines and allow the silence to be heard? Curiously, there is an 'off' switch on all of the machines and that is the first step to freedom from constant external sound. This is simple but for most people conditioned by machines--- perversely frightening.

I double dog triple dare you to have a "Silence is Golden" day once a week. Could you? The benefits are enormous and you have much to gain: several serene hours a day.

magicfeather copyright 2011 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved.