By Denny Olson
On Silence and Solitude
With apologies to the Grecian Epictesus from two thousand years ago, and probably Native elders from much farther back in time … “We were given two eyes to see, two ears to hear, two nostrils to breathe, two hands to do, and two legs to travel … but only one mouth.”
Being alone and silent almost always has negative connotations. The concept of loneliness likely drives the busy-ness of our social contacts. Cell phones, car radios, and televisions all help to make sure that we aren’t alone. We take smart phones to bed with us, and laptops when we supposedly get away on vacation. We are only a push of a button away from contact, and a click away from choices in the thousands. With stimuli coming from every direction, we are multitasking almost constantly. And, socially, our culture implies that being alone is equivalent to lacking something or someone. Alone humans feel pressure to be apologetic about it. And for the chronically insecure and socially inept, deriding “childless cat ladies” is somehow a badge of honor.
But, when cultures were more traditionally tied to nature, which happened indigenously on every continent and island, solitude was formalized with multi-day vision quests – tests of self-sufficiency, and personal growth. Solitude had power and was sanctified even in the Christian tradition by Jesus of Nazareth; according to accounts in gospels written by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he spent 40 solid days and nights alone in the wilderness. The cultural biases of the writers, and later the framers of the other parts of the Bible, led them to interpret this odd behavior as a time of testing and resistance to temptation. But they weren’t there with him. What if this enlightened Nazarene simply wanted to sort out a few things without the distractions of Messianic expectations?
Many Eastern traditions have silent, solo meditation as a central tenet in the path to enlightenment. It is interesting that, for the most part, they choose a very quiet place where distractions are minimal before starting the meditative process.
Indigenous cultures, especially tribal people with land to spare away from the central village, for eons have had solitary vision quests that saw solitude as a prerequisite, testing self-reliance, expanding wisdom, and coming back with more to offer their society. It was expected that one would come back stronger.
For me, that brings an appreciation of birdwatching and bird listening. To see much of anything, even while not alone, silence is golden. Heaven only knows that I do enough talking in my work (ask any of my friends!). But being alone and silent while looking and listening – or daydreaming under the pretense of ornithological pursuit – is where I recharge.
It’s nice to know that science agrees. Two hours of silence each day grows new neurons, and thinking capacity, in our brains. While silent, internal and external information can be integrated and organized in our conscious world. Even while sleeping, excess noise grows our adrenal glands and activates stress hormones. Just two minutes of silence is probably more relaxing than “relaxing” music or white noise. Silence decreases error-making and increases motivation. Excess noise causes children and adults to learn slower and reduces language skills.
Stimulation usually comes from outside, and inspiration usually from within. The number of stimuli we encounter in our daily lives keeps thinking reactive and therefore shallow and unfocused. The real power in solitude is the unfettered descent into deeper thought, on perhaps a single topic – like birds! And in the process, our thoughts pass directly through cleverness into the realm of wisdom.
I don’t need a lot of rationalizations for birding, but it sure seems like a good idea to me. Now I can also be assured that birding is flat-out healthy, based on good science.