Featured Bloggers for Fog or Writer’s Choice
Since I don’t know all of your first names, I changed the format of Featured Bloggers somewhat to reflect your tagline or title. Your friendships mean so much. Thank you all for joining in.
- CATH’S CAMERA
- CEE’S PHOTO CHALLENGES
- HEAVEN’S SUNSHINE
- LADY LEE MANILA
- LIGHTWRITELIFE
- LOVING LIFE
- LIFE AFTER 50 FOR WOMEN
- SECOND WIND LEISURE (SUNDAY STILLS)
- SHEETALBRAVON
- SOUL N SPIRIT
IT’S EASY TO PLAY ALONG WITH #WQWWC
This weekly writing challenge runs from Wednesday through Tuesday. The only rule is to use a quote. If you want to participate, create a pingback to link your post. Not sure how to do that? See how to create pingbacks here. Be sure to link to the most recent post not my page. I don’t see links to my page.
#WQWWC #49 – Topic Silence
Huh?
Do you or a loved one live in silence without the aid of hearing aides? My husband actually prefers the tranquility. I check after each sentence to make sure he heard me correctly. If he repeats it, I’m satisfied. If he’s unresponsive, I know he’s in his silent place.
Do you like silence or hate it? Has anyone ever silenced you? Have you silenced someone or something else? Can you use silence as a tool to communicate? Comedians do. Teachers should. Should a doctor? What about a silent crowd? What about animals? My cats use silence all the time. My dog rarely does.
What’s good about silence? What’s not so good? Should you keep silent about a secret? (Read this month’s story chat, “Broaching the Subject” and tell us what you think about the mom’s secret.)
Definitions and Synonyms of Silence
- complete absence of sound.
- quietness · quiet · quietude · still · stillness · hush · tranquility · noiselessness · soundlessness · peace · peacefulness · peace and quiet, speechlessness · wordlessness · voicelessness · dumbness · muteness · taciturnity · reticence · uncommunicativeness · unresponsiveness, secretiveness · secrecy · reticence · taciturnity · uncommunicativeness · concealment
- prohibit or prevent from speaking.
- suppress or prevent the expression of (a gene or genetic material).
This week I am tying this post to both Sunday Stills: Leaves Have Fallen and LAPC # 174: Shapes and Designs. I am also responding to Judy’s entry to last week’s PPAC on her blog, Life Lessons.
As you read this post, please enjoy this new-to-me group, Pentatonix, that Ju-Lyn introduced to me.
Falling Leaves
“Listen …
Adelaide Crapsey
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break free from the trees
And fall.”
More Leaves and Favorite Quotes for Silence
“Sometimes it’s best to stay quiet. The silence can speak volumes without ever saying a word.”
Anonymous
This is great advice for teachers to get more answers from more students. When I went through Math Matters training, this was called “Wait Time.” Try it! It works!
“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.”
― Alfred Brendel
Quiet Man with a Dream – Baldasarre Forestiere
“One of the most effective ways to learn about oneself is by taking seriously the cultures of others. It forces you to pay attention to those details of life which differentiate them from you.”
― Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language
Living near Fresno, my husband, friends, and I had many opportunities to learn from other cultures. Today I’m going to share one Sicilian immigrant’s amazing contribution bringing his culture and knowledge of growing fruit and innate knowledge of architecture and engineering to Fresno.
In 1900 at age 21, Forestiere came to the United States searching autonomy and a chance to build his own life away from his wealthy Sicilian father and six siblings.
After four years in what he considered the oppressive living conditions on the East Coast, he followed an advertisement promising a Garden of Eden in Fresno, CA. (LOL if you have ever been to Fresno in the summer.)
His 70-acre purchase appeared to have good, but scorched top soil, but a little digging turned up mostly hardpan, impossible to cultivate. Underneath, the hardpan, however, the soil could be cultivated.
Alone, for the most part, in forty years, Forestiere had plenty of time to think. His engineering skills were way ahead of his time. He quietly created this 7-acre, 65-room labyrinth masterpiece of engineering which included a solar-heated water tank for his tub, and a “Venturi Tube” ventilation system.
“Silence isn’t empty, it’s full of answers.”
Anonymous
So Forestiere turned hardpan into building blocks and created the most unique home, the world had ever seen up to that time. The most prominent shapes in his design are arches, domed ceilings, and columns made from pieces of hardpan cemented together.
The hardpan could be rectangular, square, round, or roughly trapezoid, they fit together to form an esthetic wall. Trees and lattice and their shadows create additional shapes on the floor, columns hold up the underground structure.
Most of the rooms were circular or rectangular. Forestiere’s furnishings remain giving the eye even more shapes to enjoy.
The design of the building itself is known in engineering terms as a “Venturi tube” or inverted cup or cone with a hole in the top. This shape pulls fluids and air from outside into the space below providing an adequate ventilation system.
Imagine lying in bed ten to thirteen feet underground. Now imagine what sounds you would hear.
“When I say I love the silence, I’m not being entirely truthful. What I actually love are the abundant, delicate sounds that amplify when I’m silent. These curious creaks, mutters, and hums compel my imagination.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
Carved with a hand pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow, his design included a winter and summer bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, sitting rooms, courts, a library, chapel, and a fishpond – stocked with freshly caught fish. Some of his walls were plastered and painted.
This bedroom contained a peep hole next to the candle. He could see who was coming, but they couldn’t see him. (He didn’t even need Ring.)
It is called an underground garden because many species of trees, bushes, and plants grow underground out of the harsh seasons in Fresno when summer temperatures stay over 100 degrees F or 37.7778 C for months and can drop into the 20s in the winter. Forestiere’s underground home and gardens stay at about 70 degrees F or 21.111 C most of the year.
Forestier was not silent forever. In 1923, he told a reporter from the Fresno Bee, “The visions in my mind overwhelm me.”
It takes no genius to make a straight line. Tie a string to the nose of a jackass and let him walk away. You and the jackass have made a straight line. But to make something crooked and beautiful, that is a wonderful thing.”
Baldasarre Forestiere
I admire this man’s life of silence and his many accomplishments. Forestiere died in 1946 and his trees and home live on.
Now it’s your turn.
What have you been silent about? Here’s your chance to get it out.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
Your babbling is music to my ears. Please leave a comment!