The Desire for Silence

I do not suppose many of the readers of this blog will be old enough to remember, “The Goon Show” and its memorable characters including Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan? They once did a sketch where it was possible to go into a shop and purchase a length of silence. It was a very humorous sketch that has stuck with me down the years. Yesterday I would have given anything for the sound of silence, if just for a short time. I began early with a neighbour pruning trees and it seemed to continue most of the day, one thing after another.


Music is often the stimulus to painting for me, but there are as when I crave silence. It seem we live in an age that has become afraid of silence, the remote control age, where people move from room to room picking up remote controls as they go. An age when we put on televisions, and the get on with other things and ignore what is on. An age, when if we are not careful, evolution will develop ear pods and cell phone attachments at birth. I exaggerate, but you know what I mean.

What used to be background music, to stimulate nice thoughts, floods our being, at every turn. I fear we live in the age of communication where the one thing we seldom, if ever, communicate with ourselves.

There is the ancient story of the four monks who decided to keep silence for seven days. On the first day they were silent. The meditation had started well, but when night came and the candles began to dim one of the monks said, ”Who is going to fix the candles?”

The second monk was surprised to hear this and exclaimed, “We are not supposed to speak.”

“You two are stupid. Why did you speak?” remarked the third.

“I am the only one who has not spoken,” said the fourth.

It is not easy to be silent with oneself, but it is worth the time. As many of the wise have said, “be still and know yourself.”



this blog is linked to my other where I talk abou the art used:- Silence