Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

You are here

Shaping silence 11.10

han yu's picture
Free Write/Brain Storm for 10 minutes. I don't want to make it exclusively a free writing since I understand that sometimes when people are tired, or in a class environment, it is hard for them to write effusively. 
Therefore, as long as you are thinking about this topic, it's fine.
 
Think about one memorable and significant moment of your life with someone or some people really important to you were involved. 
Once you come to that moment from your perspective, try to forget about yourself for several minutes, and imagine the voice of that one or ones important to you. 
What are they thinking? What are they feeling? 
This moment/experience can be either full of joy, or disappointment, or indifference from your perspective but not from others'. 
 
Any experiences you want to share? Any thoughts of imagining someone else's voice and perspective? 
 
It's ok if you cannot think of any moment within the time limit of this class activity. My purpose of doing this free writing is just to push us thinking. 
There can be many different ways to interpret the outcome of this silence activity.
My reason of designing this activity is that, usually when we think of silence, we tend to focus only on ourselves. Many silence activities I have been through asked me to concentrate on my senses, breathe, even when someone else was interacting with me, I was still asked about my own feelings. 
Therefore I want to do something different. To dive into our silence, dig into our memories, but imagine the voice of someone else that we deem important, rather than simply feel our own feelings. 
What roles are those people playing in our lives? Are we still alone in the world? What influences on them may come from you? How is the relationships changing between you and them? etc....etc....