The Sound Heard Round the World

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​The world touches you everywhere.

It breaks through any barriers built in attempts to cut its connection. This constant bond will inevitably lead to the pain of overstimulation- and when you beg for rehabilitative silence, to indulge in an encasement of quiet, it will tell you no. It is not an option. It was never an option, and it will never be an option. Whether it's endless scents, an infinite stream of sounds, the sting of a cold touch, or the comfort of a warm embrace, the world does not let you leave without knowing it.

 The planet is vibrant and generous in the gifts it gives to make us hear it. It screams at us in universal languages, dialects that are soaked in experiences both wonderful and wrong. Each touch is personal and perfectly catered. Its trace of your skin, its murmurs in your mind- they are so particular that no two people know the world the same. Yet, when we meet in the middle, and talk of the undeniable, unspoken similarities, we learn that the voice always comes from the same speaker. Maybe with a different tone, or a slight shift in pitch, but it comes all so wonderfully the same. It unifies and divides us, but no matter the impact, it will forever sit within us. We cannot, and never will be free of this speaker, of its sound. It will never be silent. No efforts to oppose it will overcome. We will disappear in the vibrational consequences of our own actions before this world shows even the slightest falter in its reverberations.

The human race is a natural disaster.

An invasive species that wrecks the ecosystem unlike any other. There is no life that lives among us who can compete in this race for destruction. It is this man made, deafening explosion of sound, however, that matters most. How can we hear one another in a world designed to drown us out? To overtake the natural noise in which we, already, tirelessly swim? To break through the world's sound barriers with a sound even greater? We cannot hear ourselves. We cannot listen- not if we must sit within the merciless, overwhelm of clashing sounds in competition, with all who play viciously vying for the reward that is our attention. With hearing none of ones self, how could you ever come to focus? The design of the modern day is dominated by a constant feud for our recognition. Hardly ever does one performer win. Hardly ever is one voice heard for longer than a moment. There is too much noise. Whether it is a digitally personified voice, a point made on a page, a scream through a screen- or maybe even the fall of a tree- there are too many sounds to stop our minds from switching focus at incomparable speeds.

We cannot hear each other. There are too many voices we can't make out and too many faces we can hardly see- we cannot possibly take the time to know any of anything, at all. The noise is everywhere, all at once and all too sudden. The world has become too loud for listening. The mind is strong- but against the combined power of a natural and artificial world, our strength, and our resolve, is reduced to nothing. Read a book, write a story, listen to a faceless voice, observe the narratives of another life on a film screen, stimulate yourself with every man made stimulative you can.
“You will amount to nothing without us.”
“You will know nothing, if you do not know us.”
You will not understand the world enough to succeed unless you indulge in every inundation of our manmade commotion. This is the advice that echoes throughout the chambers where these voices, begging for your attention, sleep. They fault silence, they fault stopping. They are the claimed informants needed to achieve a full and well lived life. What a frightful world it is to hear accusations of not being enough unless you have heard the right echoes, in the right ethers, at the right time. Maybe an intimidation tactic, or maybe a warning- it matters little when each leaves such a dark shadow of discomfort.

What we come to know in silence can hold a meaning far beyond what we come to know in sound.

So, take the time to indulge in fantasies, in the bliss of a boundless and wandering mind, in the endless exploration that is silence. The quiet is healing. The quiet can teach you to hear. It takes the polluted and overpopulated pieces, stuck deep in your body, and removes them in honor of pursuing greater passions. Let the overwhelm of headlines, jarring images, underwhelming sentences, and tumultuous videos be calmed. Let yourself be overcome by the things you find matters most. In the quiet of your wandering mind, look for and hold onto all the best meanings you can find. Not every thought can be explored. Some must be released in the sake of sanity. Take in these unavoidable external sounds, both manmade and not, then let them sit in silent rooms. Let them roam through each and every hall, over and over, until you can finally hear the sounds you need most. Create the internal space needed to let these favorite thoughts prosper. Be calm, be anxious, be overwhelmed, or be ambitious- but protect the space that lets you to feel these things. Find out the max fit- the highest capacity your mind can take- then place a secure cap over it each time the top is reached. If you find it too full, shove out the bad and make room for the meaningful.

How can we drown out noise that never stops?

How can we cover our ears when the world will compensate by screaming through screens? I sit across from friends, and there are moments I cannot let myself hear them. I cannot bear to take in anymore. I watch their eyes glaze over as I speak. I feel my mind become absent as they utter. Not always does this happen, and not always does this disconnect feel good, but it reminds me that we are living in this same, recklessly loud world, together. I am not the only one who can't catch their breath when more is added to the messy box that is a million incomplete things in my head. I want to hear more. I want to hold the hands of the ones I love longer. I want to grasp the unexpected, but welcome words, of a stranger. I work towards this, I want this. I know that the life we are building is designed to kill this. The world is loud enough without us. We did not need to create our own with the intention of being louder. It is good to remember, though, that most people do not want to drown you out. It is just an unfortunate side-effect of the noisy life we’ve been born into.

When we can hardly hear ourselves, there is no fault in hardly being able to hear someone else.

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© 2023 Niki Christine. All Rights Reserved.