Second Thought

Looking again at news and commentary

"Full silence" by Fenella Bennetts—July 30, 1975

The Christian Science Monitor

"Friendship is like music—sometimes the full orchestra, sometimes the chamber ensemble, the unaccompanied suite, or the pause between movements.

"Music is not only sound: silence is one of its elements. And silence is not a void. It can be filled with the glow of sound just heard; or promise of sound to come; the thrill of the unexpected; the poise of an interlude; or the poignancy of a told truth. Silence points up sound, prepares us for it, gives relief from it, enables beginnings to be born from endings.

"Friendships have silences in them. Maybe these silences too are basic elements of friendship. They don't have to be tear-filled or fear-filled. What we fill them with is up to us. They can be love-filled silences. They have their own particular music which we often need to play unaccompanied. They are growing seasons, teeming with quiet, invisible activity, like the resting in winter when each must tend to his own roots. The next budding and blooming is not in question on account of it, but assured because of it.

"These silences may last for hours, weeks or years; but the point of reentry is precise if the arc is faithfully drawn—if the thread of love remains constant. And then how vibrant the sound, how fruitful the interchange.

"But what about silences of remorse, of doubt, hatred or neglect? Even the greatest Master of all time was dealt a silence like this by his friends in his most crucial hour. But perhaps it only seemed silence to the onlooker. Was the silence filled with sound to him, filled with the presence of the One who is Love?"

Editors' comment: Silence, too, can be filled with prayer. And in prayer we hear that "still" voice of Truth—God's Word—that can move mountains and heal lives.

ISAIAH

Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.

Isaiah 30:15

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