Welcome to David Mundy's nearly-daily blog. David retired after 37 years as a United Church minister (2017)and has kept a journal for more than 39 years. This blog is more public but contains his personal musings and reflections on the world, through the lens of his Christian faith. Follow his Creation Blog, Groundling (groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.ca) and Mini Me blog (aka Twitter) @lionlambstp
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Nine Kinds of Silence
Silence is essential for human health, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Study after study indicates that there are physiological and psychological implications to excessive noise and that silence can create a sense of well-being and creativity. Noise can create stress in other animals, on land and in water, and we might assume that silence benefits them as well.
There are plenty of passages in scripture which silence is the fertile place for communion with God and key figures are attuned to the Creator when they are in solitude and away from the hustle and bustle of human-made sounds. Elijah and Moses and Jesus are the obvious examples. But what about Hagar when she is sent into the wilderness? In her desperate silence God comes to her. Paul had his sojourn in the desert as well, a rather mysterious period before he began his hectic missionary activity.
Paul Goodman
Recently I read about Paul Goodman's Nine Kinds of Silence for the first time. I'd never heard of Goodman before, but he was an American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, public intellectual & gay-rights activist who was influential in the 1960's. I am intrigued by his categories particularly the silence of peaceful accord with other persons or communion with the cosmos. This resonates with many of those biblical stories and my own experience.
Paul Goodman Nine Kinds of Silence
Not speaking and speaking are both human ways of being in the world,
and there are kinds and grades of each.
There is the dumb silence of slumber or apathy;
the sober silence that goes with a solemn animal face;
the fertile silence of awareness, pasturing the soul, whence emerge new thoughts;
the alive silence of alert perception, ready to say, “This… this…”;
the musical silence that accompanies absorbed activity;
the silence of listening to another speak,
catching the drift and helping him be clear;
the noisy silence of resentment and self-recrimination,
loud and subvocal speech but sullen to say it;
baffled silence;
the silence of peaceful accord with other persons or communion with the cosmos.
What do you think about these forms of silence?
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2 comments:
I think I have experienced all 9 of them ! (You just have to live long enough !) But silence as a relief from the noises of a city is especially a blessing - one I enjoy whenever I visit my friend in Haliburton and walk in the woods there, or go on a hike outside of the city limits. I can feel the tension easing (tension that I didn't even realize was building up in me)
I would agree that we eventually experience all of them. It's interesting that someone would take the time to name them. The silence which is freedom from human created noise is certainly a blessing as well. Thank Judy
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