do we need this?
When I’m told to “mind the gap” in train stations, I wonder how necessary the warning might be.
Maybe some people forget to notice the hole between where they are and where they want to be. The warning might prevent a terrible accident.
But gaps are obvious. Difference demands attention, it interrupts the order of things, it challenges expectations.
I have no choice but to mind it.
I usually forget constant sounds like traffic noise, birds singing in a forest, or even the background chatter of a news program in another room – but if there’s a gap of sudden silence, it can’t be ignored.
And words that are not said can hang in the air with bright lights that flash, “pay attention to me.”
When someone “minds the gap”, their silence speaks with a megaphone.
When I re-wrote the manuscript of “Chasing Lights” (so many times) I often asked, where can I leave something un-said? Where can silence expand the meaning of the moment? No amount of words can completely describe something like the aurora borealis, but maybe a gap can do it for me?
Keep Chasing Lights.
Gunnar
chasinglights@gunnarbranson.com
