The article “The Joy of Quiet,” published recently in the New York Times, expresses at least a part of why I write, why I promote an active and thoughtful involvement with words, and why I collect ideas for how anybody can incorporate words into life. The article discusses the crush of information people get via video monitors and screens and the growing need to try “to escape the constant stream of too much information.” Here is a quote:
A series of tests in recent years has shown that after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends (as neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have found) on neural processes that are “inherently slow.” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.
Writing words, thoughtfully interacting with them, is a slow process that requires open eyes, an open mind and an open heart. As I write, I am more aware of myself and the world around me. Being bombarded by a heavy stream of information, a torrent of words, some deep, most shallow, can inundate victims in a raging word (and image) river pouring from a myriad of monitors and screens.
It seems as if the New York Times is publishing a series on the need for quiet, reflection and peace. In another recent article, A Time to Tune Out, the author, discussing how more and more people are becoming unable to switch off the devices that connect them to email and the Internet, makes this poetically written point:
Inhabiting one place — that is to be fully absorbed by and focused on one’s surroundings rather than living in some diffuse cyberlocation composed of the different strands of a device-driven existence — is a fast-dwindling ability.
Writing a word, a sentence, a paragraph or more requires the person holding the pen, or tapping the keyboard to be aware of her or his thoughts and feelings as well as the piece of the world she or he is writing about. Writing even a very small amount in a journal or a blog can be a powerful and healthful antidote for the engulfing information flood.
