Try Driving In Silence
The gift of quiet thinking while doing something else…
I like time in the car. Mostly because I like podcasts, audiobooks, listening to entire albums. I often prefer the sound of music in a car to anything else, including a concert. ‘This sounded better in my Jeep.’ In Los Angeles, the sting of driving a long distance is soothed by road-reading. Oooh I can get through two chapters of my audiobook driving to Venice. A twenty minute drive? That’s an episode of The Daily. Orange County? This American Life. Joshua Tree? Rich Roll.
So, to my surprise, I’ve discovered the joy of driving in silence.
It started with a realization: All of my thoughts are responses to someone else’s. I spend all my time reacting. News, pop culture, hot takes, breaking stories, history books, unprecedented this or that… all I do is fill my ears and eyes with other people’s voices.
When do I listen to my voice?
When do I allow my own thoughts to compound, to cascade into something fresh? If this, then that, and if that, then what? Follow a trail of reason and feeling, from the inner wealth of experience and the fingerprint of my brain.
If I sit still and quiet, my body fidgets. I notice my discomfort. I need the kinetic energy to be released in order to think. Like an electron that cannot be observed, my own thoughts cannot be pursued in deliberate stillness. That is why driving is an excellent hack. The simple motor skills of staying in the lane, turning left, decelerating at brake lights… this allows my shy intuition and reasoning mind to play and produce. Walking does much the same work.
So, my Jedheads… give yourself a quiet drive. I’m not saying give up your audiobooks or podcasts or Gaga Abracadabra on repeat… I’m just saying, once a week, go on a drive with your mind. It’s lovely.
To play us out, a little Thomas Merton hitting the mark like a Korean sharp shooter:
“Our thought should not merely be an answer to what someone else has just said. Or what someone else might have said. Our interior word must be more than an echo of the words of someone else. There is no point in being a moon to somebody else’s sun, still less is there any justification for our being moons to one another, and hence darkness to one another, not one of us being a true sun.”
Wow! This is powerful and inspiring. We are too often afraid of silence, nervous to be alone with ourselves or wait for clarity of thought. Soaked constantly with ads, opinions, sounds, videos, and other people’s views, we’re like bloated sponges that need to be washed clean and dried in fresh air and sunshine. A healthy mind is at the core of living a happy life. But who has time for silence? To wait for the quiet inner voice? To be mentally washed? When Children are disciplined, they are given ‘time out’ and ‘quiet time.’ Adults need quiet time too.
Spot on, Jed and Mr. Merton. Powerful reminders of the importance of silence. Silence is my teacher, therapist, and friend. I strive to protect it every day. I love Merton’s beautiful words at the end of that quote. Be your own sun!