Whenever I travel to Mexico, I am struck by how loud it is. Cars honk constantly in the cities, dogs bark until very late at night, and you never know when you will turn a corner and run into a Mariachi band. People play their music loud enough so that it can be heard for blocks, and windows are often open, so family arguments are for all the neighbors to experience. Firecrackers frequently wake me from sleep. Why are they set off on non-holidays? I’m not sure. One person told me they scare off bad spirits. When I am there I often wear headphones, which really just substitutes one kind of sound for another.
When I return to the USA, it is comparatively quiet — at first. Then gradually the noise returns to me. It could be the air conditioner, or the TV next door, or an ambulance outside. There are the lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and jackhammers. Eventually I begin to hear building creaks and stomach rumbling. At night it gets worse. I sometimes think I hear noises that aren’t even there.
If I go to a restaurant it is often hard to hear my dining companions. The ear doctor tells me I am not going deaf quite yet, so I have to chalk it up to the noise level. I know that I’m a contributor. I rarely drive anywhere without the radio on, although not at Mexico volumes. And in the restaurants, I’m sure that people all around me get tired of hearing, “Huh? What did you say?”
So I try to find quiet places. Beaches are great, unless there are other people around, which there always are. When I think about it, one of the things I like most about a shoreline is the sound of the waves lapping against the sand. So maybe quiet is more the type of sound rather than the absolute volume.
Another place that I think of as quiet is the woods. My family camped a lot when I was young, and in general it seemed quieter until the people at the next campsite over started their party.
Maybe all of this explains my affinity for church sanctuaries. Mid-week, they can really be peaceful. Then we go and fill them with “joyful noise” on Sundays. Lots of people say they have trouble hearing God in their lives. When Elijah heard God, it was in a still small voice (1 Kings 19: 11-13).
Seems to me you’d need it to be pretty quiet to hear it.
