July 25th, 2017

Laurence Freeman:  "Average city noise today often reaches 70 decibels which is equivalent to being in a room with a loud  vacuum cleaner . . . we are becoming acclimatized to noise . . . Urban evolution means accommodating ourselves to the noise of traffic, planes, subway trains, construction, fridges, leaf blowers, noisy neighbors and ever-louder muzak in elevators and restaurants . . . getting used to such noise levels is harmful.  It is a form of pollution causing insomnia, depression, aggression and isolation.  Noise is more than a nuisance.  It is a serious problem . . .
Exposure to (the noise in modern urban life) effects us when . . . we withdraw to a quiet place . . . Arriving in a truly quiet place . . . can at first be a shock.  We wait for familiar levels of loud noise and, at first, can feel a sense of absence, even of loss, when they don't come.   Then we notice that there are sounds.  Not noise.  But sounds, natural sounds.  There is birdsong, a quite excited sound when you really listen to it and full of meanings we can't decipher; and insects, the constant background sounds of summer days and nights; and the wind in the trees . . ."