The Sound of Silence??

I am getting old.  I don't feel it, but I hear it in my head with little catch phrases........"Young people!"  Yikes.....I am my mother!


But really, we are in a different era.  There have been so many technological advances......or so they are called.  Are they?

Don't get me wrong, I love my IPod.  I still marvel at the fact that it has more memory in something I can hold in my hand than my first computer did.  Amazing!  But here is the downside. 

There is an entire generation that doesn't know what it is like to hear......nothing.  To listen to the wind blow, a cricket chirp, the birds sing......their own children.  I see young mothers walking their kids, either on the cellphone or with earphones in their ears listening to music. Children are babbling away without a single response of the parent. Memories are missed, messages are sent...........you are not important. 

Then there is the safety issue.  In the interior of BC an African exchange student walks to the mailbox to get his mail with his IPod on.  Above him a helicopter malfunctions and crashes right on top of him!  Tragic I know, but I will admit to you I laughed.  Now, some may argue that when your time is up, it's up and for this young man that motto may seem appropriate (coming from Africa only to be killed by a helicopter that you were not flying in). But I would argue the opposite.  Have you every heard a helicopter?? Let alone one that is in distress and falling from the sky (watch "Destryoed in Seconds")?  I blame the IPod.

If we don't turn off our electronic devices, we will forget how to contemplate.  We need to stop and assess our lives every once in a while and see if there is anything that needs changing.  To do that effectively, we don't need to have Lady Gaga blaring in our ears that we were "Born This Way"!

We need to listen to the sound of silence.

GermanG