LET'S TALK ABOUT . . .


        
                                                     "THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE"


Silence is multifaceted in nature, content and effect.  It can be moral or amoral; private and personal or an international designate.  It can carry no deeper message and meaning or it can potently communicate louder than the strongest vocabulary available to us.  It can be comforting or deeply disturbing.  It can have no noticeable effect or shape entire systems for generations.    

There is often a debate about at what point that which is personal and private becomes harmful to others and crosses the line into secrecy.  We have seen this on the international level when a couple of men decided to breach national security for what they believed was the right of the people to know.  We have witnessed it in financial institutions and markets with the exposure of numerous schemes and scandals at all levels of the socio-economic continuum.

At many systemic levels silence is a powerful political commodity.  Legally it can have implications in law enforcement and in our courts where people are allowed their right to remain silent in the service of protecting themselves, their sources and so forth.   

In our modern world where so many have grown weary of all of the above there is a powerful longing for authenticity, transparency, and integrity.  To know at the end of the day that we have lived our lives well, responsibly and ethically, is at best a complex and convoluted task.  This is especially difficult and stressful if it is all up to us to figure out at any given moment or in any given situation.  After all, we are all limited, finite beings on this journey through life.

We live out our lives in the midst of life-changing moral and ethical decisions every day.  Many experience that as a pressure simply too great or heavy to even think about.  It renders us vulnerable to experiencing just how limited and finite we really are, how fragile our grasp on control really is at any given moment.  We all choose some strategy or way of navigating our way through in an attempt of doing the best we can.

Millions around the world have just celebrated the high holy holidays of their faith.  In the Christian faith, Easter, the supreme example is Jesus.  He knew when to speak and when to remain silent.  Of course, many would debate that, since it resulted in his death.  It is only faith in the resurrection that refutes the perceived mistaken nature of his silence. 

The growing impetus in our world toward authenticity, transparency and integrity is good.  As our world faces the vulnerabilities of growing, experienced and known uncertainties, there is a powerful trend toward seeking some sort of personal and collective solution(s).  Many are floundering for the presentation of "a way" of navigating through well.  More and more there is a cry for a deep sense of well-being in the midst of it all.

Although the concept of balance is beneficial and effective when applied as a solution or corrective in some arenas.  It is limited in its scope as an application.  Balance is something that is sought as well as an effect to be maintained in one's pursuit of health and well-being.  Juxtaposed over against the concept of "balance" is the concept of "tension."  Having said that, however, the kind of tension to which I am referring cannot be humanly generated by attempting to do so.  It can never be the focus; it must always remain the effect.

Decades ago, I found myself living in the midst of an unexplainable tension. It was somewhat mysterious in nature, especially when I first realized it.  I did not know if or what else to connect it to in the rest of my life; I was simply aware of its presence.  The best metaphor for a life lived in the midst of that kind of tension is from childhood gymnastics.  It is like walking through life on that four inch "balance beam" (ironic); you could fall off either side at any given moment.

The irony of living this way is that you do not have to work at keeping the balance, it is this "mysterious tension" that holds you on that narrow four inch path.  It has been both a privilege and one of the greatest adventures of my life for the past four decades!  I have learned that not every mystery needs to be solved; some just need to be embraced! 

How about you?  To what do you ascribe in order to navigate your way through this maze we call life?  Are you even aware of the blueprint you have chosen?

Until next time . . . this is, Just Janice!