Silent Contradictions

One of the most interesting things I have experienced upon my arrival home in New York has been the presence and absence of silence.

On one side of the coin there is the literal silence I have experienced; no more blaring honking horns like in India, no more intoxicating chanting in the middle of the night like in Pakistan, and no more "Jambo's" (a common greeting in Swahili) from every person you meet like in Kenya.

But while my ears have experienced a significant decline in consumption, my mind is racing faster than I can remember. It is trying to make sense of it all and it going a mile a minute trying to understand what I have experienced, who I am, and what lies ahead.

I think what is frustrating me is that my outward voice is falling short of my inward chaos. I find that the Western world makes this juxtaposition that much more striking. Often an individual or a city projects an outward persona that does not resonate with their internal being. For some reason I find this less in the developing world, it seems there is more alignment between who you are and the image you project to the world.