Quiet.

I took a picture of this guy a couple of weeks ago at the BMW Championship in Owings Mills, MD. It was the next to the last PGA Tour event of the year.

In golf, just as the pro is about to take his swing, volunteers around the course hold up these signs. Everybody stops walking and talking, and it’s actually pretty surreal to be in a large crowd that is almost silent.

(It’s kind of ironic that pro golfer’s need absolute silence to hit a ball that is holding perfectly still while it’s socially acceptable to yell and taunt a baseball player attempting to hit a ball traveling at him at 100 mph, but I digress.)

I took the picture because I like the message on the sign.

Quiet.

Finding quiet can be difficult. Noise is everywhere.

For me, it adds to the stress of the world. People talking, phones ringing, horns honking, trucks roaring by.

This probably sounds strange coming from a guy who spent a lot of his career in radio, but I often drive in silence. No radio. Just the whoosh of cars going by.

That’s one of the things I liked about riding my motorcycle. There was nobody talking and no music…just the whine of the engine if you have a Kawasaki like I did…or the “potato potato” of a Harley, if you were fortunate enough to have one of them.

I guess it’s not exactly quiet, but I count it as such.

Some people leave the radio or TV on all the time, even if they aren’t listening or watching. Others love the sounds of the city with the honking horns and squealing brakes and rush of the subway going underneath.

I can take a few hours of that. Then I need quiet.

I think if we fill our ears (and minds) with stuff all the time, we miss out on hearing important things that get drowned out. If I’m listening to music at 95 dB, will I hear the Still Small Voice?

As I have gotten older, I have joined the “turn the radio down if you get lost” crowd. See, quiet helps.

When I was a young journalist, I was taught that awkward silence often produces the best quotes during an interview. Ask the question, get the rehearsed answer…but bite your tongue and maintain eye contact..and the interviewee will often fill the silence with a better and more honest answer. Quiet draws that out.

Quiet can help reduce blood pressure and stress.

Quiet has been proven to help people be more creative and helps with problem-solving.

We’re headed into the Labor Day Weekend, and where I live that means the last major influx of tourists to our beaches and traffic is going to be horrendous. If you are lucky enough to get a table at a restaurant, don’t even try to have a conversation with the person across from you. It will be too loud.

In a few weeks, when kids are back to school and adults are back to work, things will slow down here and we enter the quiet season. My favorite time of the year.

Christians sometimes use the phrase “quiet time” in reference to their daily devotions of reading the bible and praying. I think it’s the perfect description. For me, praying should involve as much listening as it does talking.

Perhaps a century ago, things were quieter. They had to be, right?

Today, quiet has to be intentional. Sought out. Perhaps planned.

We should all try it a little more.

“Silence isn’t empty. It’s full of answers.” (unknown)

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With the changing of the seasons, my focus and attention are also shifting and I am going to be writing “periodically” instead of daily. (Thank you Justin for that word.) THANK YOU for subscribing and reading, and for the nice comments. I’ll still show up in your inbox, but not as often. I think we’ll both like that better. :)