So day 1 has come and gone, and I gotta tell you.....it stinks. Being silent is rough! Do you know how hard it is not to say good morning to people? I feel like the devil! And if you thought not being able to be part of office shenanigans is fun.....well, you were wrong. It is. And this sucks.
This morning my office felt like a crypt. It was so quiet! There was this sort of low-hanging malaise [maybe just over my cube?] that lasted most of the morning. It hit me again late in the afternoon when it started to really sink in that this is going to be the next 45 days of my life. I like talking! I like laughing at everyone's jokes! I really don't like being a silent sally.
Anyway, I've gotta perk up. I can't go through a whole 6 weeks feeling like this! So I'm playing Murder on the Dancefloor and picking myself back up.
*dance break dance break dance break*
I think that what I'm doing is countercultural. I've fielded a lot of questions from folks who just didn't understand what I would be doing. And why would they? No one goes quiet anymore. It's Gothic, it ancient Buddhist, it's not here and now. For a little background, I went silent to [among other things] learn to lean on myself a little more, rather than the people around me. It's not religious, and it doesn't have to do with ceasing all speech--just not conversing, chatting or socializing. Here are some of the best questions I got from friends and family about my silence. You get the sense when you're reading them that going silent really, I mean REALLY isn't something Americans practice:
Can you...
- Sing to yourself? In the shower? In the car?
- Talk to your cat?
- Have sex?
- Listen to talk radio?
- Yell if you stub your toe?
- Laugh at the tv?
- Listen to voicemail?
- Write thoughts on a piece of paper and show it to people?
- Make noises?
Make noises? What? If you get a phone call, and the person on the other end is making noises---don't fall for it. Not for a second.
Well, I don't personally know anyone that's ever gone silent, so I guess I really don't have a model for this either--I'm just making these rules up as I go. Winging a practice that is thousands of years old! The nerve! But after this the path will be paved, at least for me, and these questions will be put to bed. Maybe.
On to day 2 of no stub-toe-shouting or talk-radio-listening.
Now Listening:
Murder on the Dancefloor
Sophie Ellis Bexter
This is so weird, I feel like we're all made at you because no one is talking to you. It was really hard not to talk to you at all today, there were numerous times when I wanted to pop my head up over the cubical wall and tell you some little tid bit of information.
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