SILENCE

Now all my teachers are dead except silence. _ W. S. Merwin

Hello World

PRELUDE OF BAD NEWS

In the world, there are two kinds of people: Those who enjoy silence and embrace it eagarly, and those who fear silence and avoid it at all cost, like the plague. In nature, silence could be reagarding as a prelude of bad news, because complete stillness, presents itself, just right before eminent danger.

Silence can be unsettling in certain situations, for example; When I think of the stillness that dominates the bottom of the ocean, even if the waves were 300 feet high on the surface, amazingly, they would not disturb the untamed quietness of the deep. In the oposite side above us, in outer space, in all of its dark lifelessness that I can only imagine occurs there, it surely, makes me feel unease. 

PASSING OF TIME

I know these are extreme cases, but there are nevertheless, good examples. And It's been clear to me, while pondering on the stillness in remote places, that I am more content, when there is silence around me. For me, stillness is the ultimate adventure, a great adventure of doing nothing, keeping silence; observing, in slow motion, the passing of time. 

 

The inharmonious sounds made by humans, and all the agitate turbulence we've been conditioned to believe as natural, happens only on the surface of our planet _ the ONLY known place in the universe to support life. That's not all, according to scientist, only 40% of the total land surface is habitable, the rest could be mortal to us.  

A BEAUTIFUL SILENCE

The eternal silence _ as I often referred when I speak of death_  is a real calmness that most people feel uncomfortable even mentioning, because,  perhaps, by reason, we came here without being consulted and we would all leave without our consent. However, it is undeniably a deep, long and morbidly beautiful silence. 

Ssshhh!…. Seems to be the universal sound to keep quiet or to lower ones raising voice. As I get older, quietness is greatly appreciated, therefore I get easily more irritated now by unwanted noise than when I was twenty. As a direct consequence of my age, I’ve found myself using the sound Sssshhhh way more often, making others to think that I am just an old cranky man, and that is ok, as long as they keep quiet.

USEFUL TOOL

I used silence as a tool to enhance my life, not because it keeps me calm and inspired, although it does, or keeps me spiritually engage to someone somewhere out there _ some people might think so, they call it "praying" or "meditating". Sighing! _ no, the key reason of my silence is because the less I talk, less chances I would be a fool, and less opportunities I would have to hurt someone while enganging, perhaps, in meaningless conversation.

I embrace solitude and quietness, it's a wonderful time where I don't have to open my mouth to explain useless opinions, or the why's and the how's of my character, or the useless aspect of my complains. I value silence, and at times, oh! I so wish to dive in it, and never emerge from it.  

There's another aspect about embracing isolation: It keeps me lock out from the world and its poison. Bjork wrote a poem that expresses, what I believe, the deepest feelings of frustration when we, communicate verbally the exact opposite of what we ended up doing. It's a song that melts in the air, it dives into the subconscious, advicing us to desert logic and reason and purge the corruption of the heart, by trying to forget, all that we've learned.

Today is the last day that I'm using words

They've gone out, lost their meaning

Don't function anymore

Words are useless, especially sentences

They don't stand for anything

How could they explain how I feel?

THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENCE

In The United States, people have the right to remain silence, it is a well known legal principal that protects them, yet, a great number of its citizens aren't equip, or are simply unwilling to execute that right. To them, it's more meaningful to have the last word, and by making a lot of noise, shows how smart and powerful they think they are. 

If we only knew that silence is safer than speech, things could be, I'd like to think, different there and in the world. When you listen to the music that I'm presenting with this letter, or if you are playing one of the parts or both,  I'd invite you to embrace, once in a while, solitude, and silence, and quietness. 

I feel more alive, for every moment I spend experiencing dead silence, than in any other time. Think about the next poem written by T. Hood. He shares with us, in his poetic style, where Silence is. 

Silence

There is a silence where hath been no sound, 

There is a silence where no sound may be, 

In the cold grave—under the deep deep sea, 

Or in wide desert where no life is found, 

Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound; 

No voice is hush'd—no life treads silently, 

But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free. 

That never spoke, over the idle ground: 

But in green ruins, in the desolate walls 

Of antique palaces, where Man hath been, 

Though the dun fox, or wild hyæna, calls, 

And owls, that flit continually between, 

Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,— 

There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.

Thanks for reading

MUSIC Information:

• Source: Before The Sun Goes Down Notebook
• Key: F Major / D minor
• Measures: 48
• Parts: Cello and Piano
• Duration: 3:19 min
• Pages: 3

Anaya, Javier
Silence (Before The Sun Goes Down Notebook)
PDF + MP3
Cello, Piano

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