Vanishing Art of Silence

Sometimes all the noise in the world just makes me want to go crazy!

Notwithstanding the fact that there are people in the world who need all the noise and hubbub of industry and activity to keep themselves "feeling like they're alive," frankly I just want to get away from it all.

Silence feels like it has become a rare luxury commodity in this world.

Everything around us seems to be humming, and churning, and grinding, and running, and even our electronics in their "standby" state seem to be making a noise.

Now, I should be honest up front here and mention that I'm one of those people who used to get headaches from the sound of fluorescent lights overhead rather than from the harsh light itself.

However, in my strange little head, silence extends beyond just mechanical noise. It also extends beyond people endlessly chattering, and the pervasive sound of TVs and radios churning out streams of word soup.

I'm also talking about the noise of people's minds, when I can tell that they're in some sort of state of distress or anger or something like that. It makes their presence feel "noisy" in some way people only understand if their are highly sensitive and empathic.

I realize it's not the first time I have written about this idea that I "want to get away from noise." Today it was inspired by the fact that I was watching a video about life on the remote island of St. Helena — you know where Napoleon was exiled — and I got the thinking about how quiet it would be on an island in middle of the Atlantic with no significant industry and relatively few people.

In years gone by, when I was working in the IT industry, whenever I started to think excessively about moving to some remote corner of the world it was usually an indication that I was getting towards the maximum on the stress level.

The fact that I'm looking at these things again now does seem indicative of the possibility that perhaps I've reached maximum density on the stress in my current life. As such, I think it's a really good idea that we're planning to sell this house and move somewhere smaller with less expense and less upkeep... I just hope we can find a place that is also relatively quiet.

I spent much of today outside doing yard work-ish types of things. I found it particularly enjoyable to do the things I do by hand, such as raking up bits of debris from my work. No, I don't use a leaf blower because I don't like the sound, and most of our outdoor equipment is no longer gas powered but electrical and rechargeable.

That's tot so much statement about being "ecologically friendly," as it is about being quiet.

For me, nature and the outdoors isn't supposed to be noisy, it's supposed to be quiet.

That's why I've always found people riding four wheelers through the wilderness annoying, along with people running their jetskis on quiet sylvan lakes... because if you actually want to "get out in nature," by the hell don't you go on foot?

Yes, I'm a little bit grumpy...