Noise
"Oh no. It just got worse."
These were my thoughts as I sat waiting for my car to be "checked out."
I was sitting in the "waiting room" with the television going in one corner and a loud young woman on a cell phone in another. There were two other people in the room as well - I will get to them in a minute.
Then in walked a woman and a young child. The child was carrying some kind of portable DVD player with a program blaring away. Of course, the child was paying little attention to the DVD and went straight to banging away at the Lego table. And I do mean banging away.
While I do love music, movies, and sound, I find myself often inundated with noise. From the young child to the television, there was noise. But there was also a different kind of noise in the room that was a strange and awkward silence from the other two individuals in the room who were refusing eye contact with anyone else.
Drone, drone, drone. Even the silence that bespeaks the odd tension that exists among strangers can be a source of noise. Of course, I was sitting in the room writing my reflections (in long hand, I would add), which isn't a typical activity, to be sure. I don't know if I was adding to the noise or not.
But one has to wonder about our seeming need for noise. One also has to wonder about our propensity for isolation - cell phones, texts, droning televisions, children with DVD players - they all could bring us together, but often they are used to further isolate. A person on a cell phone - talking or texting - is communicating, but also signaling that they do not wish to be disturbed. Whatever is on the screen is more important than the human being near them.
It seems if one doesn't have a previous relationship with another person, conversations are harder to begin - unless someone is willing to risk upsetting the noise.
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Peter Gabriel, on his album UP, has a song called "Signal to Noise." It isn't a catchy tune with a great dance beat. In fact, the song is rather jarring. In it, he sings the following words:
"All the while the world is turning to noise/ Oh the more that it's surrounding us/ the more that it destroys/ turn up the signal/ wipe out the noise." Later with an almost primal cry, as one pleading for one's life, he sings, "Wipe out the noise/ receive and transmit"
A strong signal is clear, without the background noise. Like trying to find a clear radio signal, the more static there is, the less clear the sound, and the more noise that there is. Perhaps the reason we are having such trouble hearing each other is that we have truly polluted our world with noise, not clarity.
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I found that the longer I sat in the automotive waiting room, the more I was having trouble focusing. Eventually, I gathered my things and told the man behind the counter that I was going to go for a walk. It was as if the noise was too much for me to even be able to hear myself think - a phrase that seems to be making more and more sense.
I have to wonder, though, is my search for clear thinking also isolating? Or is it in that isolation that I find what I need to say for a proper conversation?
Too much noise, I suppose.
These were my thoughts as I sat waiting for my car to be "checked out."
I was sitting in the "waiting room" with the television going in one corner and a loud young woman on a cell phone in another. There were two other people in the room as well - I will get to them in a minute.
Then in walked a woman and a young child. The child was carrying some kind of portable DVD player with a program blaring away. Of course, the child was paying little attention to the DVD and went straight to banging away at the Lego table. And I do mean banging away.
While I do love music, movies, and sound, I find myself often inundated with noise. From the young child to the television, there was noise. But there was also a different kind of noise in the room that was a strange and awkward silence from the other two individuals in the room who were refusing eye contact with anyone else.
Drone, drone, drone. Even the silence that bespeaks the odd tension that exists among strangers can be a source of noise. Of course, I was sitting in the room writing my reflections (in long hand, I would add), which isn't a typical activity, to be sure. I don't know if I was adding to the noise or not.
But one has to wonder about our seeming need for noise. One also has to wonder about our propensity for isolation - cell phones, texts, droning televisions, children with DVD players - they all could bring us together, but often they are used to further isolate. A person on a cell phone - talking or texting - is communicating, but also signaling that they do not wish to be disturbed. Whatever is on the screen is more important than the human being near them.
It seems if one doesn't have a previous relationship with another person, conversations are harder to begin - unless someone is willing to risk upsetting the noise.
-
Peter Gabriel, on his album UP, has a song called "Signal to Noise." It isn't a catchy tune with a great dance beat. In fact, the song is rather jarring. In it, he sings the following words:
"All the while the world is turning to noise/ Oh the more that it's surrounding us/ the more that it destroys/ turn up the signal/ wipe out the noise." Later with an almost primal cry, as one pleading for one's life, he sings, "Wipe out the noise/ receive and transmit"
A strong signal is clear, without the background noise. Like trying to find a clear radio signal, the more static there is, the less clear the sound, and the more noise that there is. Perhaps the reason we are having such trouble hearing each other is that we have truly polluted our world with noise, not clarity.
-
I found that the longer I sat in the automotive waiting room, the more I was having trouble focusing. Eventually, I gathered my things and told the man behind the counter that I was going to go for a walk. It was as if the noise was too much for me to even be able to hear myself think - a phrase that seems to be making more and more sense.
I have to wonder, though, is my search for clear thinking also isolating? Or is it in that isolation that I find what I need to say for a proper conversation?
Too much noise, I suppose.
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