Shhhh

I had just put my casserole dish of pumpkin turkey chili into the microwave at work for the big chili potluck, when an anxious nervousness took over me and the spinning of my dish failed to hypnotize me back into my usual calm state. What was is it? Recipe anxiety? Microwave radiation pulsating into my veins from just feet away? Nope. It was the quiet. I hated watching the minutes ticking away with no way to pass the time. So, I pulled out my cell phone and played my favorite demo game. I refuse to pay for cell phone games and I usually just find the best demo and then make little goals for myself. Example, get 5 lines on Tetris before the one minute time limit runs out. It gets pretty addicting. My current favorite game is “Which Weighs More?” Its a fairly mindless game where you select which of the two items on a scale weighs more. Here is a hint, its the one that is lower from the weight of the object. Pretty lame I agree..but not if you try to get 30 correct before the time runs out. Now that is a challenge worth wasting a few good minutes on. But what I continue to find far more troubling than my affinity for bad cell phone games is this growing trend that I hate the absence of sound. On the way home from work the first thing I do is grab my cell phone and begin to look for someone, usually my sweet wife, to make conversation with as I drive back into Nashville. When I get home I often turn on KCRW loud enough that I can hear it throughout the house. Even when I’m falling asleep I turn on a white noise machine to help me fall into a deeper sleep. I don’t think I’m alone in this trend either. In trading off the quiet for pleasant distractions am I missing time with myself? Are there whole buckets of thoughts that I have missed out on because I was too impatient to live within the quiet?