Silence

Time in an elevator is always interesting. If you don't live in an apartment, you may not even walk into an elevator that often in Vancouver. And unless you got trapped, you don't even spend that much time in there. I said it is interesting because of the people. It may have people in there already. Even when you are alone in the elevator to start with, there is always a chance somebody will walk in after. Usually when you see a stranger in elevator, you may nod and greet and then it goes to absolute silence. I don't know how other people feel on this. For some unknown reason, I sometimes feel kind of stressed/tense during that silent moment. I once read from a book that a professor walked in to a classroom, sat down and said nothing for a long time. This silence agitated his students. Then he started his class with the discussion about the effect of silence on human relations. "Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?" - Tuesdays with Morrie.