The Sounds Of Silence

The Sounds of Silence

We were sitting outside one morning, enjoying a cup of very good coffee at the Panera Bread Company at Coconut Point, in Bonita Springs, Florida. It was one of those golden spring mornings for which Florida is justifiably famous. The sun was shining down on us warmly. The temperature was in the mid seventies. It was truly a beautiful day.

The birds were cheerfully noisy in the palm trees all around us. They chirped and twittered and carried on like children. A soft breeze rustled through the palm trees making the fronds whisper. If there is a definition for a truly idyllic setting, this must be it.

That’s when a large group of older men sat next to us and begin to talk louder and louder about many things, none of which was important to any of them. Some, God bless them, must have had hearing problems and spoke loudly like all older people afflicted with such maladies. The others were just plain loud. We moved our seats to a table further away from them to enjoy again the wonderful sounds around us. It got me to thinking about noise in general. Some of it is unavoidable of course. Business, commerce and even recreation generate a fair amount of noise. But what if people actually tried to tone it down a bit?

In the American South, it is a long established and fine tradition to speak softly and politely to others. It denotes gentility of spirit and a grace of manners. So what happened to the rest of us? Did we fall off of a noisy hay wagon?

Florida is a lush and semi tropical paradise that rivals anything you see in the movies about such idyllic places. Whether it is the wind whistling through the Palms, the noisy cacophony of avian life or the gentle lapping of the ocean surf along the many beaches, it is a pleasure to be alive and enjoy the spectacle of the rich natural bounty the land offers.

And yet every where we go, we find those who must abhor the “sounds of silence.” They run those awful leaf-blowers and weed trimmers seemingly forever. The motorcyclists, with the overly loud mufflers, roar by trying to annoy everyone. And then there are of course the cell phone users. Most are strikingly similar, loud and annoying with inane conversations that could have waited until the next millenium.The raised voices of many drown out the rest of the silence. I wonder if they know or even care what beauty they ignore and erase for others?

So, the next time you find yourself is such beautiful surroundings, or any place in public really, try to talk softly and listen to the sounds around you. You might just begin to enjoy the “sounds of silence” like the rest of us.
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Joseph Xavier Martin