Something in the Silence

I was thinking about yesterday's post and the need to have something going on in the background - Doctor Who music again at the moment - and why silence is difficult to endure.

Always I've worked to the sound of something - music I vaguely like, Radio 5, whatever. It can't really be drama or classical because that stops me thinking about what I'm doing.

But silence - I find it distracting. I find it slightly sinister: as if the air becomes pregnant with something. Like there is someone trying to say something to you. I always feel uncomfortable with silence. Houses, rooms, don't lend themselves to silence. They should be bustling with life and love. If I am working on something, like some writing, or some maths, I find the silence brings me too close into what I am doing. It makes me get too far away from the anchorage I seem to need. Too far away from ordinary society.

Silence opens up too much space for thought.