Silence :Jennifer Byerly

After class today when we talked about the drum circle and how snow dampens sound I began to think back on something I read in Van Der Leeuw that kind of talked about how wonderful and glorious silence is. It made me think about how we talked earlier about how when there is total silence there is a sense of uneasiness for many people. God's creation is constantly filled with thousands of sounds. Different pitches, voices, clicks and taps, we are constantly surrounded by some kind of natural symphony. Even in the latest of nights in the quietest of winters, there is usually the sound of certain animals or leaves rustling.
Van Der Leeuw writes, "Wherever the will to live must be suppressed, where salvation is sought in destruction, where God represents the great 'No,' the only appropriate musical expression is the rest. 'Over man's entire life the great fermata must extend, to bring to silent termination everything which affirms life'" (227). Thus sound, especially ambient sound is life and is God. It is only in absolute silence we can know we are no longer surrounded by the world in this plane of existence. The lack of noise, even beautiful noise, is holy. Silence really is golden.

Professor Redick:
I don't know if it'll help you find and categorize everything but I wanted to simplify it since my blogs are all over the place:
1. "Explicit religious art" (my choice)
2. "Artistic Therapy" (Text)
3. Naked Not Naked (Text)
4. Animal Dance (text)
5. Christianity and Dance (text)
6. Documentaries (My choice)
7. Atonement (My choice)
8. literary tattoos (My choice)
9. Graffiti (Outside text)
10. Old Jews telling jokes (Outside text)
11. The Gita (outside text)
12. the hand of fatima (outside text)
13. Jewish reggae (my choice)
14. Silvia Plath's relationship with her mother/God (outside text)
15. Silence (text.)