The Sound of Silence

My husband has background noise going all the time.  He has a cable hookup and PVR in his computer, so he's either watching taped TV or listening to music as he works.  When he gets a phone call, he pauses the song or the show, and restarts it when he's done.

He can't understand how I can work in silence.  "Turn on the radio!" he orders, whenever he comes up and finds me in my quiet kitchen.

"I can't read and concentrate with music going," I tell him, and he shakes his head and goes back to his basement office.

Sometimes a little background sound is necessary.  If I try to cook or clean, I get bored very quickly, and I either pick up the phone to chat with a friend while the mindless tasks get done, or, if my number on call display scares them off, I turn on the radio.  Doing needed but hated chores requires a distraction, and music works.  It's a psychological trick; I'm tidying up while listening to the radio, not listening to the radio while I tidy. After all, you get fidgety if you just sit and listen. This way you get something done while listening to tunes.  (TV is a little harder; if I try to watch TV while cleaning my room, I either rewind over and over, or nothing gets very clean.)

I think, if I was a single woman on my own, I would have more artificial noise around me. In a home with three lively children and a large dog who was born to guard us against any imaginary incursion, I have grown to value silence.  When the children leave for school, and the dog goes to lie down until the doorbell rings again, I sit in the kitchen and listen to nothing.  And it's very very soothing.

Besides, what I told my husband is true; I need silence to read, to write, to think. And I think that anyone who tries to complete an intellectual task with music playing (or worse, the TV on) secretly wants to be doing something other than reading, writing, or thinking. I can't even write a blog post with music going. Interruptions derail me.  I resent the phone for ringing.  I need to work until I reach a natural stop.

Between our computers, our phones, our children, our pets, tweeting, IM'ing, texting, and that little sound the computer makes when an e-mail lands in the inbox, I think we could all use a little sensory deprivation in our lives.  I suggest everyone have "silent time" for a set period every day: at least fifteen minutes when you sit in a quiet spot and listen to the silence.  Make it a bathroom break if you must.  But focus on the silence, on the quiet, on the peace.  You might find yourself addicted.