Sounds of Silence

The class broke into a loud guffaw when I gave them the example of a classic postive meaning to be derived from a girl's silence when the boy first proposes to her. The boy could take it as a positive reply where the girl is either too shy to comply, or wants some more time before she comes to a concrete reply. It was a class on 'body language' and I had to tell them all the different kind of perceptions one can derive from silence depending on the situation.
How often I have pondered on the silence of close friends of mine, my anxiety colouring my perceptions, coming to hasty conclusions that suits my temperament! My fervent request here to all my friends who resort to silence as their best maens of communication in times of crisis- please say something to undo the mystery of the silence which can be un nerving for the reciever. More than anything, silence is hurtful. We have read the idiom 'Silence is Golden' and know its value too, but what we fail to understand is silence is intriguing, it lend itself to myriad conjectures based on the recievers perceptions, it could haunt the reciever endlessly, causing much anguish...its so easy to tell my class the different ways in which we can interpret silence, in practice I am a total failure to understand the subtle sounds of silence.