Illustration: Silence Is a Necessity

John Cage was an eccentric and experimental musical composer. One of his most famous experimental compositions was a piece called 4’33” For performances, the pianist would come on stage, sit down at the piano, open the score, and then start a stopwatch that ran for four minutes and 33 seconds. The composition was 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. All that could be discerned was the ambient noise in the hall. I suppose we could debate the artistic merit of the piece, but perhaps there is a deeper lesson. We all could benefit from some quiet—or silent—time before God.