"Chinmoku and Megs" or "Miso Soup for the Exchange Student's Soul"

Like the Rocky and Bullwinkle inspired duo-title?
Today in soc class we discussed "Chinmoku" which is the Japanese ideology and practice of honoring silence as a form of communication. Our book, The Japanese Mind, by two guys named Davies and Ikeno (give credit where credit is due) traces Chinmoku back to the zen Buddhists, perhaps the greatest masters of silent communication, even thought by some to communicate telepathically.
The text continues on to compare chinkmoku with the silent intervals within music. Within traditional Japanese music silence plays an equally critical role as the actual music "[the intervals] determine the rhythm, while the beat is subsidiary and serves to enhance the intervals." But silence is more than just an art form in Japan, it transcends artistic appreciation into seep-seeded cultural value.
Within Western society silence is usually described as 'awkward' and 'boring,' given no real value. For the Japanese silence is equated with trust, unspoken kinship and understanding, even love.
Megumi, or Megs as I endearingly call her, is a wonderful example of the beauty of chinmoku. I have really been struggling in language class lately (had you heard?) and each night's homework assignments had become increasingly painful in the amount of frustration and fatigue they produced. But tonight, without ever having to ask, Megs sat with me for almost three hours as I labored. She laughed with me when I grew exasperated, never laughing at me - and spoke only slightly to softly alert me if I was not catching my own errors. After the homework was finished we just sat together; I was too drained to carry on chatting like I usually do, so I let myself stop and absorb the chinmoku of the moment. I actually enjoyed it - saying nothing but feeling good to share another's company.
We spent class today analytically dissecting chinmoku - it's origins and pitfalls. The impracticality of chinmoku in trying to communicate with most westerners, etc. But I had a far greater lesson today with Megs - applying the theory proved to be far more educational than dissecting it.
Resting, breathing, being with Megumi... produced warm billowing clouds of content, like those within a stirred cup of miso soup... Chinmoku.