Words and Lack of Words

[Nast]

The first thing people usually say about me is that I'm so quiet. I usually tell them that I simply have nothing to say. This probably makes me a terrible bore, but splattering everyone with your raw unfiltered verbal diarrhea makes you an even greater one.

So what's so awkward about silence? A lot of people have a horror vacui in regards to conversation. They try to insulate the spaces with all sorts of chatter, as if the silence is painful. It doesn't have to be. Have you ever been with someone with which the connection was so solid words were unnecessary? That you could just share a moment, and didn't have to open your mouth and search for something clever or funny to say? That means more than all the small talk in the world.

[BadBeast]

The first thing people usually say about me is that I'm so quiet. I usually tell them that I simply have nothing to say. This probably makes me a terrible bore, but splattering everyone with your raw unfiltered verbal diarrhea makes you an even greater one.

So what's so awkward about silence? A lot of people have a horror vacui in regards to conversation. They try to insulate the spaces with all sorts of chatter, as if the silence is painful. It doesn't have to be. Have you ever been with someone with which the connection was so solid words were unnecessary? That you could just share a moment, and didn't have to open your mouth and search for something clever or funny to say? That means more than all the small talk in the world.

Most people can't seem to get comfortable with the fact that there isn't always something to say. So they just babble on, in a monologue about fuck all. To other people, who are not even listening to them, but who tolerate this white noise of communication because they also are not comfortable in silence.

[Juana]

[NotPublished]

I've missed sitting in silence ... sometimes it can be just so damn relaxing and peaceful, nothing needed to be said .. just enjoying the atoms that are being occupied next to you. But that varies from time and place of course.


Some people I can feel that connection with, but others for some reason it is just awkward to have silence ... since most of the time it just seems like they're angry!

It depends how people present themselves I suppose?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is really good.

One of the main things that defines most of my friendships is the ability to just spend time with the other person without them needing me to talk. As chatty as I am on the board, IRL I don't much like talking just to make noise. It might stem from spending almost 30 years of my life with chronically inflamed tonsils that made my throat unbearably sore if I talked a lot, or it might stem from a natural distaste for chatter... who knows. So one of the first things I tell people is "I don't talk a lot". With some of the people I get along well with, that seems to serve as an opening for silences to be comfortable. With others, it allows them to naturally chatter on about whatever it is they talk about, and as long as they don't demand constant verbal feedback, I don't mind. Some of my best friends are like that; chatterboxes who don't really need me to listen, and that's OK.

[BadBeast]

Sharing a comfortable silence with someone, is rarer than an ability to converse with a wide variety of people.
People you can easily share a silence with, are usually few and far between.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Holy fucking shit, right on time and on-topic, my housemate and her boyfriend came home and proceeded to interpret me sitting with my back to them in my office, eating dinner, as an invitation to chit-chat.

[Nast]

Some people I can feel that connection with, but others for some reason it is just awkward to have silence ... since most of the time it just seems like they're angry!

It depends how people present themselves I suppose?

Yep. If it feels as though you have to constantly defend yourself, those people aren't your friends.

Sharing a comfortable silence with someone, is rarer than an ability to converse with a wide variety of people.
People you can easily share a silence with, are usually few and far between.

Troof.

[Salty]

I really liked this. Mainly because I am just that type that needs to fill the silence. I am a chatty, chatty boy. 
And everytime I find something within that compells me to STFU, I end up hearing things worth hearing.

I should print this and put it up on my wall.

[Brotep]

Silence is more intimate and raw than words. For me its rarity is not because of how little I value it, but how highly.

[Kai]

Silence between the thoughts, thats about the only real peace I can get.

Which reminds me of the space forming meditation from Angel Tech.

[BadBeast]

Words are trivial, pleasures remain, so does the pain, words are meaningless, and forgettable.
All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here, in my arms.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9V5HlvoPs8