second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third the
people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked
or walked out.”
We were given two ears and only one mouth for a reason, the
philosopher Zeno observed. What you’ll notice when you stop to
listen can make all the difference in the world.
Too much of our lives is defined by noise. Headphones go in
(noise-canceling headphones so that we can better hear... noise).
Screens on. Phones ringing. The quiet metal womb of a jumbo jet,
traveling at 600 miles per hour, is filled with nothing but people
trying to avoid silence. They’d rather watch the same bad movies
again and again, or listen to some inane interview with an annoying
celebrity, than stop and absorb what’s happening around them.
They’d rather close their mind than sit there and have to use it.
“Thought will not work except in silence,” Thomas Carlyle said. If
we want to think better, we need to seize these moments of quiet. If
we want more revelations—more insights or breakthroughs or new,
big ideas—we have to create more room for them. We have to step
away from the comfort of noisy distractions and stimulations. We
have to start listening.
In downtown Helsinki, there is a small building called the
Kamppi Chapel. It’s not a place of worship, strictly speaking, but it’s
as quiet as any cathedral. Quieter, in fact, because there are no
echoes. No organs. No enormous creaking doors. It is, in fact, a
Church of Silence. It’s open to anyone and everyone who is interested
in a moment of quiet spirituality in a busy city.
You walk in and there is just silence.
Glorious, sacred silence. The kind of silence that lets you really
start hearing.
Randall Stutman, who for decades has been the behind-the-
scenes advisor for many of the biggest CEOs and leaders on Wall
Street, once studied how several hundred senior executives of major
corporations recharged in their downtime. The answers were things
like sailing, long-distance cycling, listening quietly to classical music,
scuba diving, riding motorcycles, and fly-fishing. All these activities,
he noticed, had one thing in common: an absence of voices.
barry
(Barry)
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