An Essay from a Quiet Mind in a Loud World
Words by: CL
The premises of many Thick Mint Co. designs are that they remain entirely wordless. There are no tag lines, no slogans, no words to point you in one direction or another. And it's not because I have anything against slogans, phrases or words but have you ever thought about what you can say without saying anything at all?
My entire life I've been a notably quiet person. First impressions usually fall along the lines of "you were just so quiet" or "I thought you didn't like me". But this isn't about introverts and extroverts because I can be both if I want to. But I've learned that it's in the loud world where communication has gone completely awry. It has become a scene for telling and doing, rights and wrongs; where "silence is ignorance" and "your opinion matters". Perhaps in certain places those may remain true, but in the true world of obscurities and inconspicuous movements, the tattle tales of rights and wrongs have no business walking around like they do. Now, some may think that a quiet mind is a world lived internally--internal thoughts, boiling anxiety and flustering self-consciousness; that quiet people are just too afraid to make some noise. But noise is need, noise is desire, noise is the epitome of complex miscommunication that has driven our world into one full of distress and artificial agony. And thus, from the perspective of a quiet mind in a loud world, there is much to be said without saying anything at all. But quiet does not necessarily mean silence. Quiet can mean a myriad of things. Quiet can be a smile or a laugh. Quiet can be a snarky comment to a fellow friend or a "good morning" and a "goodnight". Quiet can even be a two hour conversation with someone you've only just met. Quiet is speaking, acting, living and breathing without having to add anything at all to the world we live in. Quiet is connection. But of course, like most things, quiet is not for everyone. For some, lengthy days of a work-hard-play-hard life ignite the fire beneath their soul and make them wonder if living out on a island in the middle of the Pacific was the right choice after all. But then again, doesn't it make you wonder what would happen if the whole world went quiet? Every morning, the birds awake and make deafening noises outside my window. Trees sway in the wind at night as hefty rain clouds pass above. In the day time, the growl of a lawn mower drifts through our neighborhood air. And as the evening sets in, all settles down for just a short while as if to take one large deep breath. The world is a noisy place but quiet minds instill the balance of it all. I once talked to someone about dreams and how I never had any. I'm not sure what exactly killed my dreams I sense it had something to do with keeping up with all that noise. Something in my upbringing or perhaps just American society itself instilled in my soul that to succeed is to make your dreams come true; tell the world your dreams and they may just come true. And that's what dreams became--plans to keep up with and dreams to become reality. So I thought, why dream when I can just make it real? And at that point, all my dreams died. But someone recently told me about real dreams, big ones, but the intention of making them come true seemed like zero to none despite them being planned out to the tee. For them dreams and reality didn't align and to succeed did not mean to make them come true. It was mere existence of a massive thought released into the atmosphere to just float amongst the quiet. And let me tell you, they were some wild dreams--fully capable of becoming reality but that wasn't why they were created. Some dreams, if you let them be, are not destined to become reality. Life, like dreams, hold value in different ways. It's like wondering what happens after death- does everything just go blank or is there more to it? That is perhaps what makes an idea like death so terrifying; there are too many unknowns. But I think it's the unknowns that makes it so certain that something comes after death. The noise around life is so strong that death gets to sit idle in its quiet corner left for us to ponder but not dwell on. But if you do take a moment to sit in that quiet corner, you'll realize that there are just too many unexplainable things in life for nothing to come after death. And perhaps, just like that, death and life, noise and quiet, we find ourselves yet in another important balancing act. But the balance between quiet and noise don't always come in such large predicaments like life and death. In fact, the most important ones come in the smallest moments of the day, between a deep breath and an exhale, when a smile becomes a laugh, when the clouds turn pink and the day resets. Every night, our heads hit our pillows and we transport ourselves to a place between life and death to dream. All is quiet, our bodies are mostly still, and we get to spend hours of our life in the purest form of quiet. In our dreams, the noise of reality is removed and from within that quiet we learn a myriad of things about ourselves, other people and how we interact with the world. Sure, some times they come in the form of what might mimic an acid trip but some times they are calm enough to ease you back into the noise of reality, making it not seem so loud after all. On this evening, it was one like every other. The sun dipped beneath the tree line and all that was left were the cinematic pink-blue skies and some shallow clouds to ignite their fire. As the sunlight slowly disappeared, the mosquitoes buzzed in protest and feasted on our legs and I was reminded that in times where the noise of the world gets too loud, settle into your dreams, find the moments between each breath, between each smile, and become all consumed by the quiet. Let these moments sink into your skin to repel the noise. Say nothing at all and see how far that takes you. From a quiet mind in a loud world. |