1/22/14
A good friend of mine asked if being silent so long might get lonely. I think we naturally associate silence with isolation. Human beings are generally social, "pack" animals by nature. We relied on one another for survival in our hunter gatherer stage and communication was an essential ingredient in this interdependence. To separate oneself from the herd by ceasing to communicate would be almost certain suicide.
But now, in this age of email and text messaging (not to mention sign language, etc,) actually speaking is no longer necessary. You can communicate perfectly well without it. In the eyes of many however, ceasing to speak is "social suicide", and that holds every bit of terror as the real thing.
1/23/14
Human beings have a more highly evolved and complex means of verbally communicating than any other species on the planet (as far as we know). We have countless different languages each with many unique words of description and subtle nuance.
The majority of time we spend using this intricate, highly evolved means of communication is spent discussing social hierarchy (talking about other people or ourselves). The next time you are a part of any conversation, listen, and the truth of this statement will be readily apparent.
Our gift of speech can just as easily become a curse. I find rationally discussing ideas and theories to be pleasant, invigorating, and yet "quiet" in some way. But the banal rancor of gossip is noise of the worst kind.
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