silent musings

Yesterday was the Day of Silence, meant to bring attention to the anti-LGBT name calling, bullying etc. that happens in schools. I participated, as did one of my college friends. We spent the day together, silently studying in the library, eating lunch and dinner and walking about campus. While it may seem like this would be an awkward and uncomfortable way to spend the day, I was actually the happiest I've been all week.

I found it really refreshing to not speak all day, to be immersed in my thoughts all day. Too often, I rush through my day, not taking any time to just sit back and wonder. And it was lovely to just walk beside someone, without feeling obligated to keep the conversation going. As we walked across campus, I observed so many things around me that I wouldn't have even noticed had I been having a conversation: the scurrying of the squirrels, the joyful daffodils, the papery bark of the birch. Though it is easy enough to experience and notice these things while walking by oneself, I feel silently experiencing and sharing these things with someone else is one of the most wonderful things in the world.

Later, as we sat in the library, I found myself daydreaming about astronauts, Plato's Cave, faith and scientism, whether medicinal advance truly improved our lives: anything that crossed my mind. Though it would have been nice to have a conversation about these things with someone else, it was nice to simply collect my own thoughts and not be influenced by those who speak first and think after.

Perhaps I embraced the silence for the wrong reason: the silence was supposed to a symbol for the silence that overwhelms the LGBT community. While the silence that chokes the LGBT community is deathly and harmful, the silence I discovered yesterday was beautiful, life-changing. I can't wait for the day when we have no need to protest anymore, when the world is at peace and we can all experience the soul-stirring silence I caught a glimpse of yesterday.