I stumbled upon an article that says the following:"Have you ever known people who have to turn on a TV or a radio the moment they enter a room, or can't stand to do work without some sound on? These are people who are desperately afraid of confronting some truth about themselves, so they try to drown it out with constant distractions. The noise can also be mental - constant text messaging, video game playing, etc to fill up the isolated islands to downtime in everyone's day. The point is not simply that they like the noise, it's that they create the noise. The turmoil they create out here mirrors the turmoil in their mind, and drowns it out. For a lot of people there's a voice that wants to bring up some things they'd rather not deal with - some emotional trauma of their past, some wrong they've committed and for which they are repressing their guilt, etc. "In the movie Caramel (Sekkar Banet), one of the characters tries to busy herself by changing her hairstyle almost everyday, by going to castings for advertisements, and by doing exercises at her house. She is in fact very talkative and always busy with something. We see in the movie that she is keeping herself busy so that she won't think about her husband who is working in the Gulf and going out with another woman. She keeps herself busy and takes care of herself, so that she won't face or think about the fact that she is getting old and that she has entered the stage of menopause.
In fact there are several different levels... I've seen teachers, volunteers, social workers who busied themselves and worked very hard to the excess, so that they will keep themselves from thinking about the harsh realities of life. It's their way to face/escape life, to endure the mental and specially the emotional hardships that is brought upon us daily.
I see the volunteer who is running from one volunteer work to the other, so that she would forget that she has a mother who is sick at home.I see the teacher who is working more than her working hours and even staying after school to work, so that she won't go home and face the arguments that will come up as soon as she enters the door.
I remember the pastor who used to busy himself in his office, with his daily routine of office work, so that he won't face the fact that his calling is somewhere else and that he is not seeing himself fit for the ministry.
I remember, while serving in the army, the soldier whose office faced mine, used to keep the TV of his room on all the time, and the volume raised. At that time, I used to ponder and wonder why he didn't shut the TV off, or lowered the volume, when he left his room... One day he told me that he keeps the TV on and the volume raised, so that he wouldn't feel that the room is empty, so that he wouldn't realize that he is alone in his room.
What do you think? Do you feel lonely sometimes? How do you cope with it?
Raffi