As a child when I used to visit my father's father I could not stand the silence. You could hear the clock on the wall ticking off each second. Of course as a child I couldn't understand the need for silence.

When I worked as an automotive technical writer, the atmosphere was the same. It really didn't bother me either way. When I attended Drexel, sometimes I had to call my math professor to discuss approaches to problems and again, there was that dead silence with the clock ticking off the seconds in the background as the only sound in the room. Later, when I worked in the Hilltop Institute, a health policy "think tank," again I was working in a deafening silence. At the Hilltop Institute it was different for me: I actually embraced and enjoyed the silence because I could think and work unencumbered with all kinds of distractions around me.

Now I understand the need to work in silence or even just to relax in silence. Music, TV, radio, people conversing, and other sounds effect our emotions in ways that we do not necessarily welcome. These sounds also cause the mind to drift on thoughts we rather not entertain especially when trying to relax or focus. I have developed an appreciation for the absence of sound.