The sound of silence - Michael's Essay
As we tuck into a bounteous repast tonight or tomorrow, it's hard to find a whole lot to be thankful about with all the horror, natural and man made, at work in the world....
As we tuck into a bounteous repast tonight or tomorrow, it's hard to find a whole lot to be thankful about with all the horror, natural and man made, at work in the world.
Of course there is family, those we love and who we hope, love us. We look to small advances, small slivers of good news to go with the feast, tiny islets of light in a darkening world.
To that end, let me suggest that peace and quiet are making a comeback. Well, not so much peace of any kind, but quiet, yes.
Little shards of data from here and there suggest that the move to quiet is gradually coalescing around the idea that all the noise of modern life is driving us crazy. For example, commuter trains in Canada and the U.S. now provide "quiet zones", whole cars or parts of cars where cell phones, and other noisemakers are forbidden.
The Right to Quiet Society of Vancouver continues in its blessed quest to get music removed from restaurants. And from the travel department, comes news that vacationers will fork over an awful lot of money to resorts which guarantee them an expensive but quiet time. According to one Caribbean resort slogan, "Silence is the new luxury."
For example, at one such retreat in Hampshire, England, you can stay in a tree house to which staff provide room service without a sound, by waiters swinging on vines I presume. The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel offers travelers an entire quiet zone floor. The rooms have triple-paned sound-proof windows, no bellhops, no housekeeping, no room service from eight in the morning till eight at night.
Some companies and governments, especially in Europe, are imposing cell-phone free weekends on their employees. Individuals are taking noise and distraction matters into their own hands. One couple I know --- she a successful magazine editor, he a novelist and magazine writer, decided to shut off their cell phones and other devices from Friday night to early Saturday evening.
The move to quiet coincides with the wildly popular mindfulness movements breaking out across the globe. People in large measure are looking for alternatives. They are fed up with the constant and clamorous imposition the world thrusts into our lives.
Novelist Saul Bellow got it right 30 years ago when he wrote: "Society claims more and more and more of your inner self and infects you with its restlessness. It trains you in distraction, colonizes consciousness as far as consciousness advances."
Nowadays when we bow our heads, it is not in prayer but to check our e-mail. Things can get so out of control, as the poet T.S. Eliot suggested, that we are "distracted from distraction by distraction."
I didn't intend a Luddite anti-technology rant. I love my devices, especially my iPod with all its music lovingly imported over many years. I also have a smart phone, an iPad, a wristwatch that runs on solar and an electric toothbrush. Two of them.
All good. But sometimes we need a break from electronic sight and sound. We need to hear the leaves falling and the laughter of children. This weekend might be a good time to practice.
Of course there is family, those we love and who we hope, love us. We look to small advances, small slivers of good news to go with the feast, tiny islets of light in a darkening world.
To that end, let me suggest that peace and quiet are making a comeback. Well, not so much peace of any kind, but quiet, yes.
Little shards of data from here and there suggest that the move to quiet is gradually coalescing around the idea that all the noise of modern life is driving us crazy. For example, commuter trains in Canada and the U.S. now provide "quiet zones", whole cars or parts of cars where cell phones, and other noisemakers are forbidden.
The Right to Quiet Society of Vancouver continues in its blessed quest to get music removed from restaurants. And from the travel department, comes news that vacationers will fork over an awful lot of money to resorts which guarantee them an expensive but quiet time. According to one Caribbean resort slogan, "Silence is the new luxury."
For example, at one such retreat in Hampshire, England, you can stay in a tree house to which staff provide room service without a sound, by waiters swinging on vines I presume. The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel offers travelers an entire quiet zone floor. The rooms have triple-paned sound-proof windows, no bellhops, no housekeeping, no room service from eight in the morning till eight at night.
Some companies and governments, especially in Europe, are imposing cell-phone free weekends on their employees. Individuals are taking noise and distraction matters into their own hands. One couple I know --- she a successful magazine editor, he a novelist and magazine writer, decided to shut off their cell phones and other devices from Friday night to early Saturday evening.
The move to quiet coincides with the wildly popular mindfulness movements breaking out across the globe. People in large measure are looking for alternatives. They are fed up with the constant and clamorous imposition the world thrusts into our lives.
Novelist Saul Bellow got it right 30 years ago when he wrote: "Society claims more and more and more of your inner self and infects you with its restlessness. It trains you in distraction, colonizes consciousness as far as consciousness advances."
Nowadays when we bow our heads, it is not in prayer but to check our e-mail. Things can get so out of control, as the poet T.S. Eliot suggested, that we are "distracted from distraction by distraction."
I didn't intend a Luddite anti-technology rant. I love my devices, especially my iPod with all its music lovingly imported over many years. I also have a smart phone, an iPad, a wristwatch that runs on solar and an electric toothbrush. Two of them.
All good. But sometimes we need a break from electronic sight and sound. We need to hear the leaves falling and the laughter of children. This weekend might be a good time to practice.