Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Sounds of Silence

Most of us live in a noisy world; traffic, cell phones, Ipods, television, radio, and so on fill our days with sound. Some of us apparently don’t remember “quiet” and are uncomfortable with time filled with silence.

I was at my orthopedist’s office yesterday. His waiting room is a quiet one, overlooking woods and large planters filled with flowers. There is no television blaring drug infomercials or showing talking heads warning us about diseases we might have and not even know about. I had about a half an hour wait, and was quite happily enjoying the quiet while I knitted.

Suddenly the woman across from me picked up her cell phone and called her parent’s number. “Hi Dad. Is Mom there? No? Oh. Well, I wanted the recipe for the cookies we had the other night…….” and on and on she talked. This gave the woman behind her the idea to call someone, and then the woman behind me called someone. So suddenly the silence was gone, and the rest of us had to listen to three halves of conversations. Why people are willing to have personal conversations in front of complete strangers is a mystery to me, and why anyone on a cell phone has to shout is as well.

There is a sign in the waiting room asking people to please take cell phone conversations outside into the hallway, and the daughter of the woman behind me noticed it and whispered to her mother that she shouldn’t be on her phone. The woman took her call outside, and the other two people quickly ended their conversations.

Silence!

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