Shut

It's a curious thing how much noise we live with. It's each other who we hear much of the time, and it's also machines. Air conditioners, refrigerators and the plumbing around us all create noise that we can't even hear. It has to get turned off when you film, but we can't even detect it. The machines do, though. It's really something to think of how all the noise affects us. I think that we come to need the noise, however much we might think otherwise.

I think we must be scared of the silence, because then there's just our thoughts, or we might actually get something done. People talk about having something on "in the background" as a matter of comfort while working. I don't know if that actually works for them, or if they're just like me. I think I want something on in the background while I work or before I succumb to sleep, but it's really just a counterproductive thing.

I get bored lying there in bed waiting for sleep to come, and so I want some music on, or a TV show. The trouble is that my mind starts working to follow the lyrics or the plot. I start getting mentally stimulated, and now sleep's never going to happen. I always make bad decisions like that. I tried proper 'white noise' at one time, but I didn't find that it did too much for me. I think the thing is just to get properly tired and then the noise doesn't matter.

Still, there it is. It does no good while I'm working either. I having the TV and music off now, but I could have them on and start getting my focus tugged in another direction. Even if I managed to keep writing, suddenly I'd be thinking about William Conrad or the AARP. Those things aren't what I want to write about. The noise is what I want to write about. The less we have, the better off I think we are. Just keep the purposeless noise down, for my account if not for your own.