Silent sounds from within
silence
the absence of sound
it can be scary unsettling
it may suffuse you with apprehension
it might simply make you uncomfortable
why do we all feel
like the pilot in that joke who turns to
his co-pilot
midfly and asks
where is this awful silence coming from
the co-pilot replies
i think it’s coming from the engines
let me ask you this question when was
the last time you felt comfortable being
silent
when you didn’t reach into your pocket
for your phone
to check the news the mail the tasks in
your calendar
when’s this fear of silence
what does it portend what does it mean
i want to convince you today that we
need silence
to hear our voice within and we needed
to create
and give meaning to our existence
i am by training a linguist and i like
to ponder the question of
how meaning is created
and how we use sounds to communicate
meaning
there is a theory from this book
which argues that we started to use
language
by first understanding sounds
by assigning meaning to the
vocalizations made by others
and only later did we become capable
of producing sounds and creating meaning
ourselves
in other words it was while we were
silent
that we became capable of understanding
others
and perhaps ourselves
but how is it possible to go from
understanding a few sounds
to creating new meanings
well consider sounds such as
what kind of meanings do these sounds
evoke for you
did you hear whisper softly spoken
or serpents slithering through the grass
did you think of thieves stealthily
sneaking through the night
to swipe your purse
once certain sounds became associated
with certain meanings
it was only a matter of time before
variation in sound
could create variation in meaning
and could communicate variation meaning
we have now traveled far from those
primitive beginnings
to a point where you and i feel that we
could communicate any meaning
using the sounds we grew up hearing
around us
yet there is also an inner voice
speaking to our being
without sounds some would argue without
words
and perhaps this is why we have more
trouble understanding this
i’m sure all of us have heard at one
point or another in our lives
a voice asking or half answering
or skirting the question of the meaning
of life
when we’re children when we get lost in
a game
or in a make-believe world the meaning
of life is all too clear
when we’re children the meaning of life
is play
later upon joining the workforce
upon becoming active members of society
some of us
hear a voice insisting that a job is
more than just a career
for some of us a job is a calling for
others it’s a vocation
who or what is calling on you to be what
you can
become
or do you hear the voice of destiny
urging you to be what you must
become
but is this all we are children lost in
play
and adults trying to fulfill our social
roles
isn’t there another deeper meaning
toward existence
i believe us in this day and age say
with don quixote
who says i know who i am
and who i may be if i choose
imagine a superior being
you could say it was god you could say
it was some
extraterrestrial intelligence far
superior toronto
imagine that this superior being somehow
communicated to you
the meaning of life and all that exists
in this universe
so now you have it it’s clear in your
mind perhaps in a dream or doing a
trance
that’s a period being communicated to
you the meaning of life
how confident do you feel about being
able to pass this message on to others
using sounds
you and i are not related to the ruler
of the universe like jesus the nazarene
for whom the meaning of life was simply
love love one another
you and i have not had socrates as our
teacher and mentor
like plato the greek philosopher
for from the meaning of life was a quest
for the truth
know thyself
you and i have not spent years in
solitude contemplating this question
to achieve enlightenment like buddha the
indian prince
for whom the meaning of life
was a search to see past the world
illusion
maya to escape suffering
i submit to you that despite having that
message about the true meaning of life
clear
in our minds you and i would not be able
to pass it on to others
in fact i suspect you and i have trouble
answering an even more basic question
who am i and what is the sound of my
voice
within
why do i say that
i was fortunate to spend my childhood in
a space time called
communist romania where
the only screen was the black and white
tv screen broadcasting
only a couple of hours a day
the rest of the time it was just static
silent static
and when they did broadcast those couple
of hours
the program was about as interesting as
watching your smartphone
when the battery is it
the strange thing about these e-voices
is that they never leave you alone
you get on the train and there it is
compulsively in your hands
or in your ears
you’re waiting for a friend it comes out
again
you go to the toilet did i continue
i dread the day when they’re going to
make it possible for us to use these
devices
while taking a shower because that’s the
only time i get to hear my voice
within these days
okay so you’re saying that these
e-voices all around us have been getting
louder and our voice within has become
an often
ignored whisper i get it
why should i pay attention to that voice
within
what did it reveal to you
well think of it this way
there are two types of silence there is
the
i need to think silence
and we need this silence for the big
type of question in our lives
am i in love i need to think
should we have children i need to think
should i take that job offering i need
to think
what should i wear for the ted recording
i need to think
okay i lied i didn’t think so much
then there’s also the this gives me
pause to think
type of silence
and this is the one we’re missing these
days
suppose you’re home eating alone
turn off the tv don’t look at your
tablet no headphones
do you realize that you’re literally
adding to
and creating your body
suppose you’re later brushing your teeth
do you stop to wonder where that water
is coming from
you turn around and you open a door
do you know who made that door
let me tell you a story
from my past when i was a high school
student back in romania
when i was much better at listening to
my voice within
i was taking the subway to school every
day
and i remember this one day when this
homeless kid came on the train
begging for money
and this would happen quite often in
those days at least
you’d get pairs of kids usually
and they’d get on the train and start
singing or praying
and i remember how hopeless the whole
thing seemed to me
how helpless i felt
usually i had no money to give them but
even if i had what good with a couple of
bucks
for these kids i mean these kids are
homeless
and then there’s also the collective
constant suspicion that somehow
you’re being taken advantage of that
somebody is
manipulating you
but this day
you know when this kid got on the train
i stopped to listen and i know it’s very
easy and it’s very tempting to
simply ignore that voice within but that
day i didn’t
so when this kid
knelt
and started singing
i knelt with it
and it felt about as artificial as what
i’m doing right now
the kid next to me probably felt that i
was mocking him
other people on the train or you know
some of them were sniggering others were
just
uncomfortable
but i didn’t care
i felt that i could create some meaning
within that situation i could hear my
voice
within singing with this kid
before i let you go to explore silence
on your own
allow me to sum up my message in a poem
i wrote
it’s called soundings
you and i emerge from silence
we then soak up sound patterns specific
to our culture or society
until finally a voice begins to surface
within us
a voice you might call the self
certain of nothing but itself the self
starts questioning its own significance
time stops other voices are suppressed
our physical body becomes second nature
has two questions what does it mean
and what do i mean becomes a fuse
into a single interrogation which seems
to surpass
all other’s insignificance
this voice within can be smothered
by the stupendously successful voices
coming from screens
which stupefy us into addiction and sink
us
into a slumber of insignificance
resist these surreptitious voices
and sound your voice within
thank you
you