Lana Vaughan

When did we get the idea that life needs background music like a movie? Everywhere I go there is music being imposed on me. The coffee shop, the grocery store, the shopping mall, the dentist office, even in the elevator! What happened to the beauty of silence? How is a person supposed to think with constant bombardment of music trying to draw you away from your thoughts and feelings to follow the sentiment or rhythm or tempo being piped through the sound system that came in at the lowest bid?
Looking around the coffee shop no one is listening to the music. They are working on their computers, doing paperwork or trying to have a conversation. The music is ignored even though the level causes conversations to struggle to rise above it. What does it say that there are people with earphones on trying to listen to their own music instead of what is being provided?
No one is singing. No one is dancing. No one is consciously listening. Why? Why must there be music?
This past weekend I spent time at a women’s retreat. Good messages. Good fellowship. But the best parts are the brief moments of the Covenant of Silence. For half an hour or a precious full hour more than 300 women are silent. Writing, praying, sleeping, listening, just breathing. The silence is powerful. The permission to just sit there without talking or singing is liberating.
Sorry for the rambling. The music is “Don’t fence me in”.
Oh give me room lots of room under starry skies above…