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Thursday, December 16, 2004

The Background Noise is Deafening

I am having difficulties with the world's "background noise." The background noise is generated by all the troubles we see/hear on a daily basis - the homeless guy with his mangy dog sitting on the sidewalk at Franklin and Madison, holding out a cup; the latest 9 U.S. soldiers blown to pieces in Iraq; the thousands starving in the Sudan; today's terrorist "threat level," the relentless Christmas consumption orgy all around us. I turn away from the background noise every day, block it out, push it down. This is a reasonable coping strategy, but I feel guilty about it. I am not doing anything to quiet the noise. And the noise makes it difficult for me to hear the music in my life. For me, the music comes from hearth and home, from the connections with my fellow harmonica nerds, from the support of my partners in my firm, from working up a good sweat on the footpaths.

New Year's Resolution - do something to quiet the noise.

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