Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Sounds of Silence


Is anyone else on sound overdrive yet? I realized this morning on my way to work that I am… because I drove in silence. I am surrounded by noise at home. The fans and air conditioners that have been keeping the humidity in my house down to a level I can survive in, the non-stop jabber from the kids and their friends, and the constant hum from their iPods, Wiis, and other various electronic devices all combine to a deafening level. Which you don’t realize is so loud until the kids are at someone else’s house, the Baby is napping, and the sea breeze has kicked up enough that it’s reaching my house and I can open the windows and turn off the various cooling devices.

Going over To Do lists in my head and lost in my train of thought, I only realized two blocks before the office that the radio wasn't on.  The only noise in the car was the wind gusting through the open windows, and I reveled in it.  A clean, cool ocean breeze - the humidity has broken in New England for a few brief days before the holiday weekend, when we're due to get into the heat that so many of you have been suffering through.

Not having the constant noise is one of the things I treasure about our family vacation each summer. We go away for a week to a campground with a group of other families. We do not camp – this place has a number of 38’ trailers grouped together, which we rent. With a small kitchen and bathroom inside the unit, it suits a family whose patriarch has publically declared that he doesn’t work as hard as he does to spend his vacation sleeping on the ground. And while these units have the compact interior amenities that make me want to give up my house and downsize to a more simple way of life, they do not have one big thing – a TV. There is no television, cable, DVDs, or gaming systems - unless you bring one. WiFi is only available if you take your laptop down to the general store, stand on your left leg facing north under a waxing crescent moon, and… you get the picture. Like a scene from Oprah when she has a family “unplug” for a week, our entertainment at night is talking around the campfire, watching the embers glow while the kids make s’mores and light off sparklers.

Which brings me to my Question of the Day – if your family had to unplug, how long do you think they could last without TV or other electronic devices?

2 comments:

Zephra said...

I'd give us all about 5 minutes. That includes me. I always equated quiet with bad from my childhood and can not be without something on like the radio or TV.

djinny said...

Whenever I talk about cutting off the electronics, my husband looks at me like I'm talking about taking off his leg with a bandsaw.