The sounds of silence

I played hookie from classes this past Tuesday. Before you say it, I only had one class at 2 pm and the professor teaches verbadum from the book. So, I got to sleep in instead of my usual 6 am pre-light wake up morning and boy it felt good. Daylight savings time really messes with your circadium rhythms! Anyway, I drove up to Two Harbors and gave the folks at Granite Gear back some stuff that they had sent down to sell at the gear swap last weekend. It was really nice to see them again. I know if I ever have an opportunity, I will work for them again.

After that, I went up to Gooseberry Falls State Park for a hike, some birding (for class), and to take some pictures. It was 40 degrees, sunny with a few clouds in the sky, and the sky as blue as the back of a mountain bluebird. Needless to say, I couldn't have picked a better day to play hookie. There were a few other people around, but otherwise the air was full of the sounds of chickadees, nuthatches, and little red pine squirrels marking out their territory and of course guarding it viggorously with chattering galore. I don't have a lot of fondness for this little critters because they are simply one of the most obnoctious critters that I have had contact with. They never are quiet!

That's when I noticed the quietness. If you know where Gooseberry is located, you'll know that hwy 61 runs right over the falls and the river. I can't express my disappointment and slight anger that my beautiful and quiet place kept getting sliced through by various semis and other vehicles plowing over that bridge. It was being slapped in the back of the head every time one drove by. It was a horrible addition to an otherwise perfect day.

I tried to get as far and deep into the woods so that I wouldn't be able to hear the roar anymore, but it was always there. It also got me to thinking about silence. Humans generally can't stand quiet. Most anyway. I mean, what on earth is so wrong with silence? Do we have to keep moving and keep making noise to prove that we exsist or something? The though is ludicrous! And yet, there I stood in a beautiful natural area straining to hear the roar of the waterfalls under the ice over the roar of cars.

It also made me wonder if there are any such quiet places left in this world? With high flying jets, planes, cars, snowmobiles, etc. going through large areas of quiet and wilderness, is it truely and timelessly quiet in those areas anymore? My fear is the answer is no.

The human race fights for many things; resources, basic rights, religion, against wars, for wars. But, we are not fighting for something that many of us don't realize has been stolen from us. We don't fight for the natural silences that are the essence of life. Those silences are not the abnormal quiets we think them to be, but the essence of our understanding of time and place. So, I beg you know if you are reading this, go find some silence. If you, like me find that you are unable to find true silence, speak out against the noise!