There are times when I crave noise and chaos. At those moments, there probably is no better place to be than the teacher’s room at an ESL school. The personalities which make up that room run the gamut from A to Z, and then probably the Greek alphabet as well. We’ve got the loud, the bold, the shy, the wicked, the introverted, the extroverted. We’ve got multiple languages competing with the ones we are teaching.
One of my colleagues recently stated that she thought things had toned down lately and the entertainment value had diminished. Perhaps we’ve lost a few of the more entertaining and freaky people, but sheer spectrum is still pretty broad.
Where am I going with this?
Well, there are other times when I need a bit of silence and the opportunity to collect my thoughts. Most of these times, real silence cannot be achieved. The best I can hope for is the background muted my the sounds of Crash Vegas, Concrete Blonde, the Tragically Hip, the Cult or Led Zeppelin.
Today, I found that coveted silence while I ate my ambitiously healthy lunch. Perhaps people were busy doing other things. Perhaps the need to have loud conversations over messenger without the use of headphones somehow lost favour today. I don’t know. What I do know is that the silence was quite welcome. I had time to eat and enjoy the taste of my vegetables and chicken. I had time to ponder today’s horoscope. I had time to stare out the window and see the green street in front of me. I even had time to play some Words With Friends.
Today’s Perfect Moment indeed.