Silence is Deafening

Silence is Deafening

by....Erik Schuman

Over the course of my life I have accumulated a rather large list of sayings that have stuck with me for a variety of reasons. To list them all would make “War and Peace” look like a short story.

Some of them include:

• “That’s the Fact, Jack!”: One of the zillions of classic lines from the awesome movie “Stripes."

• “Think McFly, Think”: What Biff tells George McFly in my all-time favorite movie “Back to the Future” with Marty McFly (Who was later George’s son...complicated, I know, but if you saw the movie you understand and if you have not you need to see it) looking on.
• “Hope for the Best...Expect the Worst”: Even in the best of time this is solid advice. Expect the worst to happen because if it does not you find yourself in a much better situation. When in Vegas and I either play a table game or bet on a sporting event I go in expecting to lose my bet(s) and all of the money I brought with me. I HOPE that does not happen but I have to be prepared for it.

• “A lack of planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.” This is self-explanatory (For the record this is my second favorite saying).

The one that is easily #1 is: 

Silence is Deafening

It is so simple and seems like a contradiction of words but the more we stop and think about it them more it makes sense.

When a guy asks his female significant other, “What’s wrong Honey?” and she says “Nothing” and then nothing else...LOOK OUT! You are in trouble. BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG TROUBLE and the longer the silence lasts the more trouble you are in. You both know it, too! Every second of silence is one additional long-stem red rose you have to purchase ASAP to get you off the couch and back into the same bed with her before she goes looking for someone else to do that.

We need look no further than the time we are living in now to see just how true “silence is deafening” really is.

Think about how much quieter things are now and how eerie and somewhat scary it is. I live close enough to be in the flight path of planes to-and-from John Wayne Airport as well as hear fireworks from Disneyland. The last few weeks I can count on one hand, with plenty of fingers left over, the number of planes I have seen fly overhead. It used to be planes flew so close over me that I was able to count the number of people on the plane. If I am in my room and the window is open during the warm Summer months I might not know what times it is until I hear the fireworks from Disneyland. I now know it is 9:33 pm. I don’t hear that now and might not hear it come June or July. Or August. Or who-knows-when?

Later tonight was supposed to be the Championship Game of the Men’s NCAA Basketball season. The Final Four was to be held in Atlanta with the hope tonight’s game would set an attendance record of over 80,000. Add in thousands more at the site to cover the game for the media as well as fans just there to soak in the atmosphere and it easily would have exceeded 85,000 in the area. Hotels and dining places would have been packed with prices reflecting the magnitude of the event. Instead the only “noises” heard in the area will be crickets although if a cricket makes a sound and no one is there to hear it did the cricket actually make a sound?

If the Final Four actually took place it would have generated an amazing amount of noise. Fans would have made most of it but don’t forget each school’s band and cheerleaders trying to fire up supporters of “Hometown U.” That is until (and hopefully not) someone got injured. Then the noise would have gone from one extreme to the other. It would have been quiet enough for a baby to sleep with due reverence being showed. In this case the “silence would have been deafening.” The same goes for a baseball game when a batter gets hit in the head by a 90+ MPH pitch. Even though the place is loud the thudding sound of a baseball glancing off a batter’s helmet is easily heard as is the collective gasp and resulting silence that ensues. As is everyone then applauding when the injured player gets up, even if he is someone from the home team’s most hated rival.

For the most part I am not a morning person. Or at least I was not one until last year when I went thru my “Nightmare Journey From Hell!” (On February 22, 2019 I as diagnosed with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I have been Cancer-Free since May 20 and done with Chemo since July 23 and if you looked at me now and did not know I had Cancer you would not know I had Cancer). I would be upset when something woke me up (I am a very light sleeper). I hated hearing birds chirping, dogs barking or on Wednesday’s hearing the garbage truck making its rounds because it woke me up. Ever since I came home after my first Chemotherapy visit and for the last five after that I love hearing all of the noises I used to hate because it means I am alive. I lived to see another day – something I took for granted but after you beat cancer you take NOTHING for granted.

Now, I don’t hear those noises and the silence is deafening. Even though I know the reasons why are not good I like hearing the shrill of an ambulance or police car siren because it means I am not experiencing an episode of “The Twilight Zone” where I am the only person left on the planet (For the record: I would be OK if the planet only had 2 people as long as Cinderella Landolt was the only other one with me). I wake up and hear NOTHING! N-O-T-H-I-N-G! It is also scary. The same goes when we take Velvet for her twice daily walk (In my next life I want to be this dog – she had a brutal life before we rescued her but now she lives the life of a pampered princess). Taking her at night was an adventure since we would see at least 500 cars if we went a certain way. That number might now be 50. Or less. Way less.

When a couple gets married, one of the very last things the person officiating it does is ask if anyone objects to the marriage that is about to take place. In this case the silence that almost always ensues is good and means those in attendance are OK with things. The only time someone objects is in a movie or TV show where it is done because one of those getting married is secretly in love with someone else. This now gives the writers more material to work with for next season since it always happens on the last episode before Summer reruns. Or in a Capitol One commercial where Jennifer Garner chimes in to extol the virtues of the card. The same Garner whose next marriage (and there will be a next one – and would it really shock anyone if there were more to come even after that?) will make the number of kids and the number of times she has been married the same number. If anyone should be speaking up and objecting at weddings it should have been someone at both of Garner’s (Although in all fairness before she married Ben Affleck I sooooooo wanted to be her next husband – her loss!).

We all enjoy noise. Some more than others. Some at a louder level than others. Almost no one watches TV with the sound off (Sporting events excluded – especially if someone like Joe Buck is calling the game because in this case muting the TV is always the best choice to make) unless they are hard of hearing and need the closed captioned option (Mom is like this since she is hard of hearing and since she “inherited” this from her mother the fear is this will be handed down to her three kids with me being the oldest).

Noise indicates something is happening. Silence means something may or not which is why “Silence is Deafening.”