Silence is Golden
I didn't say much outloud today but just listened.
It's a new world when you experience it with a closed mouth, wide eyes, and perked up ears. It's all very different. You realize and see things that you normally wouldn't see if you were talking too much and walking too fast. But you notice it went you slow your pace down to a saunter, smile instead of frown, and whisper instead of speak. You notice things that are hidden behind words that people don't say. You notice things because the world lacks in silence and when the silence does come it shows beauty in its golden light.
I listened to the way people words rolled off of their tongue. I listened to their accents and the lack of accents. I listened to the different ways people would pronounce the 'Aaa.." "Aaay..." sound. I watched how wide their mouth would get when they said a word or how tightlipped they were when they spoke. I watched their facial expressions and saw the sincerity of people's conversations.
And I was dissapointed to see that attention lacked unless the topic was gossip. I learned not many people talk about ideas or world events but mostly about ...who is going out with who, what they did that weekend, how much they hate school, and sports.
It was typical things.
I thought about all the things that I missed because I was begging in silent thought that someone would come up to me and break my concentration by asking me how I felt about the Ozone Layer and Euthanasia. I hoped that there was more to today's youth than superficial conversations that I was witnessing.
People looked so bored. So insincere. And I was hurt. Because I know that I'm sure I do that too. I was hurt because no one listens to me and I barely listen to anyone else, or myself for that matter. I was hurt in so many ways because there are so many things I want to change in this world but can't.
So I went along my merry way to my other classes listening and half listening to what people had to say because it didn't matter that much. Because it wasn't that interesting. Because no one really paid attention to what the other person was saying. Because no one cared that much. Because people were just all together insincere.
I went home thinking that no one listens and too many people talk without having anything to say. I went home thinking that I barely learned anything about life but I did learn that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's head were chopped off, how to conjugate Future Simple for French, and the quadratic formula. But I still felt that today lacked in anything worth learning. I still felt degraded by listening to the over all conversations of my peers.
I went home and I remembered why people said, "Silence is Golden," because it really is. It really is.