What it means to lose silence
Recently I had to leave my isolated little house in South West Scotland and go to London for a few days. Lots of things about this trip were extremely agreeable - seeing old friends and new art, having some productive meetings and eating exceptionally good food with good people (there are limits to rural cuisine!)
But after barely three days I was exhausted, restless, frazzled, nervy, and debilitated. And what caused this distress was the hellish noise. ‘Hellish’ is not a word I would use lightly; here I mean it literally - the word , which means “noisy tumult, uproar, chaotic din”, is derived from two Greek words: (‘all’) and (‘the demons’). The Devil hates silence., C.S. Lewis, better known for the Narnia stories, has his devil write:
