I’m fed up with noise. Everywhere I go, there is too much of it. And I don’t mean normal conversations, the noise of daily life, etc. I mean piped in noise, turned on noise, stuff that isn’t necessary to your everyday getting things done life. Take yesterday for example. I had the day off to take care of an appointment. In the small waiting room, where you were supposed to give information to a receptionist mind you without having to yell preferably, CNN was blaring from a giant TV. The next waiting room (because there’s always more than one waiting room, isn’t there?) there was music coming through the speakers and some courtroom show on in a TV in the corner. The third waiting room (I’m not making this up) has soft lighting, snacks, soft talking nurses, and yes, a giant TV screaming at me. Look, I work in TV, I should be loving this, right? Wrong. I don’t need a TV on in every room I go into in every building I have business in everyday. The tire place I was at last week had FOX news blaring. The restaurant we ate at last night had a really loud music track right over our heads. Even the burger place up the street from the station plays loud music outside the entrance to the place (and don’t get me started on how they shout at you when you walk in!) so you can’t even sit outside and enjoy the evening without hearing ‘Final Countdown’ by Europe. What ever happened to silence? To good ol’ reflective, being alone in your head, thinking ’bout stuff, silence? Must we be assaulted with noise at every turn? It’s as if businesses are so worried about creating an “atmosphere” or keeping us entertained that they don’t think for a minute that we may want to enjoy a coversation with someone without shouting, maybe read a book or magazine in a waiting room, or just sit and enjoy a nice quiet evening having a meal outside. Can’t we as a society wait for a service or stand in line somewhere or buy something without being entertained? It reminds me of being a kid in my mom’s car on a long car trip across Texas, pre- i-Pod, pre- video games, and staring out the window at the passing landscape, just thinking. Maybe we’d play the spot the license plate game, maybe not. But I was expected to tolerate the lack of ’something to do’ and just be. “Look at a tree”, my mom would say. “Find shapes in the clouds or stick your head out the window and feel the wind in your hair.” Excellent advice. Silence isn’t bad. Not knowing everything that’s going on the second it’s going on isn’t bad either. I go to these places to do business and spend money. You’re already in my wallet. Stay out of my head.
