Why one reads is important. If it’s just for escape, that’s all right, it’s like taking junk, it’s meaningless. It’s kind of an insult to yourself. Like modern conversation – it’s used to keep people away from one another, because people don’t feel assaulted by conversation so much as silence. People have to make conversation in order to fill up this void. Void is terrifying to most people. We can’t have a direct confrontation with somebody in silence – because what you’re really having is a full and more meaningful confrontation.Marlon Brando, Playboy interview, 1979
Most people - at least the ones I come across - seem truly uncomfortable with silence. Truly. Me? I like it. A lot. I appreciate that every silence does not have to be filled with sound. It's a respite. A welcome respite from the noise and confusion of the world. A chance to think and recharge.
Silence gives way to thoughts. To strolling around unsupervised in one's own mind. Not such a hot idea. I’m misquoting here, but the average mind is basically a bad neighborhood that no one would ever willingly visit alone. Obviously, because that’s where all our shit lives. All the bad, scary voices. All that baggage from childhood. The failed relationships. Our brokenness, our imperfections, the parts we hide from other people (the parts we hide from ourselves).
The modern world does not make it any easier. There’s always something waiting to grab your attention - some flickering glowing screen that is demanding it’s due. That’s just distraction. Sometimes I think people talk so that they don’t have to be alone with their own thoughts, but that’s a fools errand; I just don’t think it’s possible to live a fulfilled life without taking the time to visit the scary places.
You have to make friends with your monsters.
You have to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
You have got to learn to live in the void.
