what struck me most upon the silence of completing my reading of the article, but still firmly in the mind of putting the message though the filter of my experiences, is that I am incredibly grateful for your closing disclaimer, the balancing.
While silence has often been a good friend to me, there were times when I know I sought it not as a comfort or to seek wisdom or contemplate on the interrogatives, but to sequester myself from joy.
No fault of silence, I think, but, like you alluded to, the misuse of a powerful tool by a me who thought they knew enough to aimlessly venture into a foreign place without a map and no direction.
Even when I was in my musician days, I never bought into the 'you should suffer for your art'or the 'art that is a result of suffering justifies the suffering' motifs, and even less so now. Silence is repurposed as a different form of noise, I think, for those pursuing it from those places.
Cultures affirmation and idolization of these modes of thinking is a great tragedy to me and has brought tragedy into the lives of some close to me, so I was just chuffed to see you so highlight it in this piece in defense of silence - a defense that, I much agree, is botheringly needed more and more these days.
I should spend more time commending your gathering of different thinkers, the power that you wove into this piece through the sharing of personal antecedents backed by your own wisdom and the wisdom of those referenced, so I'm closing with this to try and impart some balance to my response ^_^
Thank you, Yahia - I am so fortunate to read so much these days, yet it is times when I come across reads like this (and your first:, the highlighting of the holy places of silence - for me, the hours between dusk and dawn) that I have to fend away old trappings of wishing for more hours in the day.
But it is also pieces like these that remind me how grateful I am for the hours that led me here and were given to me to contemplate silence in silence after reading the words of a thinker who has all my respect.
Thank you so much for the share, good sir. 
My Dear Alain, @carmalain7
Even grateful for this quiet understanding:
"the misuse of a powerful tool by a me who thought they knew enough to aimlessly venture into a foreign place without a map and no direction."
and, how, if we're not careful things curdle into their opposites: "Silence is re purposed as a different form of noise, I think, for those pursuing it from those places."
I flirted with disaster as a younger man, romantic suffering and worse. Mercifully, you're healthier than I am, and @d-pend and the poetry community on Steemit are lucky to have you, here. Trying to guard my silences and solitude less jealously and participate more.
Thank you, for your patience, indulgence and sensitivity in drawing me out. And, I wish you continued success with your own art, and the art of living. Warmly,
Yahia