Sound
by Stacey
The other night we were at our elementary school’s auction. Rob ran into a friend who he knows to be very knowledgable about electronics. Rob began peppering him with questions and as I prepared to join a more interesting conversation, I heard our friend exclaim, “What!?”
You see, Rob had just told him, in response to a question about speakers, that I don’t like sound.
“You don’t like sound!?”, he asked incredulously.
I smiled shyly, nodded and walked off letting Rob explain.
For people who love music, sound effects and surround sound speakers, I must be a very confusing soul. They must feel about me as I do about people who don’t like books.
Ironically, I was reading through prompts from Ali Edward’s 31 Days program and one I had not written yet was ‘sound.’ Ali writes, “Radio, music, talk? What do you listen to? Kids chatter? Silence? Think about the variety of different sounds you encounter over the course of a day.”
I chose to focus on morning sounds. Here goes..
The cat’s meow as he lifts his arthritic body up the stairs.
The dog scratching to get out of her crate.
The newspapers hitting the sidewalk.
The ping of my phone as I turn it back on.
Caroline opening her door and clomping down the stairs. She inherited heavy feet from my dad.
Katherine stretching and yawning as she pulls herself slowly from her bed.
Now, if these were the only sounds, maybe I wouldn’t dislike sound all that much.
You,my friend are acoustically sensitive. My husband and daughter are similarly inclined. Sadly they have a very LOUD wife and mother respectively. I am worried for you when the cicadas descend next week!
What a lovely term- acoustically sensitive. I am going to start using that all the time. And yes- the cicadas should be interesting…
I have always considered my very, very good hearing to be something of a curse. I prefer quiet, too, whenever I can find it.
So true. It seems like a good thing but it can certainly get in the way!
Oh my goodness! I so relate to this! I always tell people that I am sound sensitive. When I was a teacher I could hear people clicking their pens. Drove me crazy. At movies the popcorn drives me crazy. My husband and I are always bickering about the volume. (He likes loud music . . . and insists it’s not “loud.”)
The pens got me too! And it’s a good thing that my husband isn’t really a music guy or we might get in trouble. Whenever he puts music on I find myself asking him “Why is that on?” and then realizing that that is a weird question!