In my last article, Power of Silence, I began to muse on silence and what being silent opens up to you.
In chatting about this with my wildly polymathic friend Maeve Gillies, she sent me this link to a musical work by John Gage called 4’33”. Over four minutes of silence.
Erling Kagge waxes in many ways in his book “Silence in the age of noise” on what being silent opens up to us once we clear the noise of our mind.
Listening (as it were!) to over four minutes of an orchestra NOT making a sound fascinated me. Every member of the orchestra, the audience, and those watching later on video (as we are), each of us has a different experience of that silence.
What does silence mean to me? It allows space for wonder. Having a sharpened sense of wonder for the world around us opens up unknowable opportunities for creativity. Creativity is far more important for leading in the age of disruption than knowledge of what is already known and application of it in conventional ways.
What does silence mean to you?