Silence

We were in McD's today after Lea's Cross Country practice and a group of people came in... in silence. We were careful to be courteous and not eaves drop on their conversations as their hands flew about in excitement in greeting and obvious catching up... all speaking in silence.

For just the briefest moment I thought about the glory of that kind of silence. Not in a way to take my hearing for granted or the treasure of sound ~ oh yeah, I know deep my blessing as I listen to the background of my life and the radio plays, "more than a feeling..." (yeah, yeah, whatever, I still dig Boston...) ~ but the perspective that in silence everything is about image... and quiet and... seemingly introspective, attending the sign with the intention to completely understand it.

If I shut my ears and my lips this would mean for me a kind of letting go of the arranging of my tongue and teeth and vocal chords that creates sometimes meaningful noise and things to come out of my mouth, but mostly not meaningful, but on which I've come to depend .... the language that runs afoul when we who hear, often hear little of it. In the world of the silent, connections are made through sign and not to be missed because if one is not paying attention to each sign, connecting it to the imagination, nothing will make sense.

Lea asked me on our way to the car, "How do people think who can't hear?" And I said, I wasn't sure. I said that they must think in the language that they know which is sign.. and I've heard stories about non-hearing people who sign in their sleep....

Coincidentally earlier in the day we were talking about the song by Cat Stevens called Moonshadow:

Oh, I’m bein’ followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
Leapin and hoppin’ on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
And if I ever lose my hands, lose my plough, lose my land,
Oh if I ever lose my hands, oh if.... I won’t have to work no more.
And if I ever lose my eyes, if my colours all run dry,
Yes if I ever lose my eyes, oh if.... I won’t have to cry no more.
And if I ever lose my legs, I won’t moan, and I won’t beg,
Yes if I ever lose my legs, oh if.... I won’t have to walk no more.
And if I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth, north and south,
Yes if I ever lose my mouth, oh if.... I won’t have to talk...
Did it take long to find me? I asked the faithful light.
Did it take long to find me? and are you gonna stay the night?

Ofcourse there are silences where there ain't nuthin' goin' on... and that's probably fine too.

I got sewing lessons tonight. Yep, I'm going to get with the 21st Century and learn how to sew by machine. The funniest thing I saw at a fabric store one day was a lady who was using a computer on her machine and it was running while she was sitting back and reading a People magazine. I asked her what she was making and she looked up at the embroidery program because she forgot, "A beehive with a bumblebee," and went back to her reading.

Isn't that funny?