White Noise
We are infatuated with white noise, we let it fill our lives with static so we don't have to face the silence. It worms it's way into our bones, into how we think. We go out of our way to make sure that it's always there, so we don't realize how meaningless it is.
White noise is more than background noise, more than mindless chatter, or inaudible voices from the TV in the other room. It's deeper than that, it fills our lives with meaningless things, useless stuff that distracts us from the things that truly make us happy.
Noise
I've always had this fascination with silence. Humans are terrified of it, we find those quiet moments unnerving, awkward, uncomfortable, and it makes me wonder why. We fight to fill our lives with noise to keep the silence at bay. We play music wherever we go, we have perfected the art of useless small-talk to fill the uncomfortable lapses in noise.
Music can be moving, conversation can be fulfilling, but we cheapen talk to fill the void of fearing what people will think of us when we don't speak.
I can feel as strong of a connection with someone after a day in the wild, where 75% of our time is spent enjoying the sounds of nature, than sharing small talk with someone when we run out of interesting topics.
How cheap talk is now makes me fear speaking. It makes me afraid that my words have become boring, that what I have to say doesn't matter. I dwell on these thoughts, wear my silence like a shroud, and in my fear it becomes a sort of white noise, a thing just to do.
Sometimes the lapse in sound isn't a lapse in interest, just a bridge to something more. I forget myself and let that fear take over. We are creatures of habit, and habit can be our downfall.
This doesn't mean that all talk is bad, only the white noise, the sounds that are used to fill a silence.
Speak with purpose, learn what true silence means.
Things
I've never been into things, useless stuff that fills my shelves. I've never needed to go out and buy things, if I'm going to spend money, it's going to be on an experience, or food. We feel this urge to gather things around us and fill spaces that seem empty. We are so afraid of emptiness that we succumb to propping ourselves up on these things. We forget what we are at our core.
This stuff is a form of white noise, it is just as useless and unfulfilling as small talk. It's like bland snack, it tides us over until our next meal. It doesn't satisfy you, but it gets you by.
Don't just get by, make sure you're filling your life with things that mean something.
Spend your money and efforts on things that don't just fill space, spend them on things that fill you with more.
Ending the Noise
This white noise fills our lives with things we don't need, conversations we don't care for. We waste our time on these things that make us just get by.
Don't just get by, shed this white noise like a skin you don't need, fill your moments with what matters to you. Learn that silence isn't so scary, that empty rooms aren't lonely.
You owe yourself something that makes you feel.
If you feel the need to break the silence, to fill the void, make it count.