Soundscapes

I once read a book about the changes happening to the sound environment, how London streets once reverberated with the sound of horses hooves clopping against cobblestones, a sound now extinct from everyday experience. It spoke of changes in technology and living styles affecting the background noise to which we are accustomed, how living in a city blocks nature sounds from filling our ears (and I would add how the haze of city lights at night has affected our night vision to such an extent that we are no longer able to see in true darkness).

I thought about how the soundscape differs from my last apartment location to my current location. Some sounds are alike - in both places I lived between two churches who ring bells and play steeple music. In the old apartment, I was located between a Catholic Church who's bell simply tolled the hours and Pearce Memorial that rang Westminster Chimes on the quarter hours and sometimes their carillon played hymns. In my current apartment, I am between a Catholic Church that rings the Westminster Chimes along with occasional tunes, and a Presbyterian church that tolls the hours.

In my former apartment I didn't really hear any traffic noise because I was so far back. I could hear birdsong clearly, and insect noises though. In my current place, I begin to hear traffic noise starting around 6:30am and lasting until at least 10pm. I only hear the insect and bird sounds when I walk towards the back of the complex.

There is not the same angst about sound extinction as there is about species extinction, but I wonder if we should be concerned. For me the changes in soundscape include incessant ringing of phones that do not sound like phones. At work, we can program our phones to sound like just about anything we choose from a star wars sci-fi sound to buzzing and rhythmic beeping to an "old-fashioned" phone ring.

Cell phones allow you to program the ring of your phone to reflect your personal tastes be that music or a male voice shouting "Answer the phone, stupid." (no thanks - my phone rings with Bach's Fugue in D minor). Once the sound of a phone ringing used to be limited to a building where there were phones; now you hear phones ringing just about anywhere, including in bathrooms, cars, outside, in concert halls, churches, you name it.

Laptops provide their own access to sounds not normally heard outside a living room. You get to hear movies and music wherever you go (what's that old nursery rhyme? "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse. With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, She shall have music wherever she goes.") We are never without sound.

While I don't advocate spending time in an anechoic chamber (I once stood in one at an organ manufacturer's plant, a room where they recorded pure instrumental sound to use as their electronic stops), I can't help but wonder how all this noise is affecting us in our ability to hear, to respond, in our physical condition. Not only is silence rare, but it has become uncomfortable.

I have come to believe that our bodies and our souls need silence, times to relax, times to be free of outside stimulus. In healing from cancer (or any other devastating illness), I found it especially necessary to carve out times of walking in nature not only to surround myself with beauty, but also to escape from the incessant noise of the world.

It often felt as if it took at least a half hour for the noises jammed up in my ears to slowly fall out and clear my head. Once the blockage was removed, my body could move on to concentrate on other necessities, healing actions, calming jangled nerves, restoring peace. I resent noise pollution and combat it as often as I can. It is not just that the changes in our soundscapes surprise us or affect us in ways of loss. It is that we are forced to endure so much unwanted sound, so much ugly sound, so much constant noise.

If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, a bit stirred up, a bit at loose ends without knowing quite why, if you are tired all the time for no apparent reason, on edge, find yourself snapping at people, I encourage you to find a quiet place - a truly quiet place - and spend some time there. For some it may be a nature trail, for others a library, for others, your bedroom closet. Whatever the place, go there and stay there until the excess sound falls out of your ears and your body relaxes. Then stay awhile longer, listen for silence, for peace, for your own breathing, for nothing. Close your eyes and be quiet.

If you do that, maybe, just maybe, you will be able to hear the Truth. And maybe you will be able to take that peace with you back into the noisy world.