Sunday, August 7, 2011

Silence Is Scary

She was telling me about how uncomfortable she is around her step dad. "It's even worse when he's quiet," she said.

"There's nothing wrong with being quiet," I said.

"I know, I know, but it makes me nervous," she said.

Sigh.

 

4 comments:

Mei said...

Silence causes me to think of what is plotted against me. I was this way with new engineer. I could almost see his brain working on the next scheme.

Perhaps this is what she feels for her step dad.

Zeri Kyd said...

Mei Lian, you're right, and it's true that there's probably an understandable reason for the feeling. Still, I bet the engineer would be plotting whether he was silent or not.

Sultan said...

My guess is that what she really is saying is, "I am uncomfortable because I do not know how he really feels about me and I fear that it might be negative or that he is judging me harshly."

Zeri Kyd said...

Laoch, given the lack of context I provided, I'd say that's an excellent interpretation. In this case, though, I think she was afraid that his silence might be hiding a simmering anger. Either way, my point is that silence is often seen this way: as keeping something hidden, something that might be unpleasant. Looking at it another way, you could say that a lack of silence is more comforting to people. While I can understand some of the fears that people have, it's still disheartening that something I find comforting -- something that I so often am -- regularly makes others uncomfortable.