SHH! Is silence just not speaking? Or is silence the removal of something, as a sculptor removes rock to expose what is inside? Could it be standing still? Or complete inaction? Stilled body movements? This begs the question: What is silence? Maybe it isn’t just one thing. Perhaps it could be many things.

Paul Goodman wrote:

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.

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When writing we must be aware of the different kinds of silence. Someone once said (And I wish I could remember who) that historians tell you what happened, but writers tell you how they felt. It’s our job to describe terrain and culture, but more importantly, we should describe feelings. If all we do is talk about body movements and action, we lose that special moment to stop and talk about the five senses, and sometimes that elusive sixth: prediction, reading the other person’s intentions. Silence is the perfect opportunity to juxtapose the silence of the room or the terrain with the busyness inside.

As we head into the noisy celebrations of the New Year, maybe it’s time to reflect on silence.