"[[Walker Percy]], one of the last great southern novelists, has a powerful passage in Lancelot, **based on Percy’s own struggle with idleness and addiction to entertainment**. In the book, **the harried narrator walks outside of his Mississippi mansion and, for the first time in years, simply stops**. "He steps outside his bubble and experiences the moment. “**Can a man stand alone, naked, and at his ease, wrist flexed at his side like Michelangelo’s David, without assistance, without diversion . . . in silence?”** he asks. Yes. It was possible to stand. Nothing happened. I listened. There was no sound: no boats on the river, no trucks on the road, not even cicadas. **What if I didn’t listen to the news? I didn’t. Nothing happened. I realized I had been afraid of the silence.**" ([Location 470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07QY3CZ9L&location=470)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[joy-of-missing-out]], [[mindfulness]], [[patience]], **Source** -- [[202409180133 - B - Stillness is the Key]]