Silence And Sound

We humans are always swinging between silence and sound like a pendulum. We can never figure which way to stay. We either talk too much or too less. Our words are either too loud or too meek…Why are we so hung up between the both? Both have their pros and cons. Speak excessively and ruin things, only to be silent at the risk of never having your voice heard. It’s a tricky path to tread on. We all have tried to maintain a balance, with labels of introvert and extrovert coloring our attempts and perceptions.

Why do we talk excessively…sometimes incessantly? We do it to cover up our insecurities in candy words, because we want to fit in. Hence, to project an ideal image of ourselves, we constantly decorate ourselves with speech. Maybe we are too afraid of being alone with our thoughts that we try to fill awkward silences with even more awkward and ill-timed conversation. We destroy silences meant to be enjoyed, little moments devoid of speech that could have blossomed into something calming. This makes me think, do we ever really speak out loud of what truly matters? Do we say what we really want to say?

But saying too much means revealing too much. Too many people will know things we wouldn’t want them to know. They will twist our insecurities, sharpen them into weapons to be used against us for their own good; or simply manipulate us because they can. Saying too much means risking your relevance. Excessive words leads to dwindling attention; so when you say things that you want people to listen, you will find them ignorant, your ideas lost in the vacuum between them and you.

And silence? It’s beautiful sometimes; and other times, it becomes unbearable. Yes it is a symbol of resistance, of a refusal to give words to people who do not deserve it…it can also become a nightmare that haunts, us, making us wish we said something instead of keeping it all to ourselves. Maybe people would notice then. But people are not mind readers, and they will never know what goes on in that complicated head of ours. With every word we don’t say when it should have been said, we see people walking over us. What is the point of closeting things only for them to burst out in undesirable break downs? When we take to silence too much, even if it is our inherent personality, we let something inside of us die a silent death. There is so much we have that the world needs to hear. There is so much we need to say to set things right!

But we humans are really weird, we are talkative when silence would be beautiful, and silent when we need say it out loud. There are times when all we want is to cry so hard that sobs shake our entire system, we need to shout out; but all we do is let the tears fall silently down on the bathroom floor and make sure no one sees. Just like times when the quietude of our thoughts, but we forcefully surround ourselves with the hollow chatter of people who do not matter.

There is this famous saying “Speech maybe silver but silence is golden.” I disagree. Silence and sound both are equally precious in their own places, we just have to recognize where they fit best. It is not about changing your entire self to fit in, to speak more or speak less. It is about choosing the better option that you won’t regret and staying true to yourself.