course an oxymoron jumbo shrimp original
copies this past spring my students and
I set out to compile a list of
agreed-upon facts oil floats on water if
you touch its whiskers a cat will blink
the world is not flat but the exercise
got very tricky very quickly because
what we were relying upon had to do with
insight look up the word in any
dictionary and you find it to mean
acumen deep perception but dig deeper
and you come upon the word in sick
furniture household goods law
terminology found in Scottish archives
that is amazing insight something we can
own something we do own like a cup of
coffee or a purse not just sling we have
flashes of or moments of you can always
get your insight but how through silence
maybe you thought something that
surprised you if you had more time maybe
you’d have more insight our world today
is incredibly noisy our cell phones beep
our cars alarm our dryers buzz
advertisements the news the election
listen to me the world says clamor of
bounds and it strikes me as true that
particularly people who are highly
motivated say I just do not have time
for silence I mean how am I going to fit
that into my day silence not sorry but
who amongst us does not want to be a
little bit like Finnegan floating in
spacious pneus surrounded in the
spaciousness not cluttered in silence
can provide that sense of spaciousness
and let us get to our furniture our
household goods that insight that
doesn’t just come in flashes we have it
all the time often silence is the very
best answer we seem to be afraid of it
people say that was an awkward silence
well actually the silence is not awkward
maybe what came before it is awkward
maybe what might come afterwards you’re
afraid of but the silence actually not
awkward I am 10 and my father stops the
car in southeast DC and we watched the
circus unload the ostrich sachets down
the steel ramps into the city streets
the giraffe even womb bent her neck to
fit through the door my father and I
watched in silence in awe 31 years later
when my oncologist puts up the slideshow
of my mammogram and I see that the
calcifications have formed a very nice
neat tight cluster I saw the stern look
on his face we both simply stood in
silence knowing that I would never be
the same again our world has wonderful
wonderful details if we can get it just
a little bit closer than usual if we
take the time and allow the spaciousness
of silence our insight is our furniture
it’s ours if we just allow that space
around it let’s just end in a few seconds of silence