What I Hear

          This exercise consisted of two parts. The first part of it was the Soundwalk. This is defined as walking and listening to all the sounds around me. I walked around a neighborhood in Queens called Middle Village. This neighborhood is particularly quiet, especially in comparison to Manhattan. The sounds differ drastically when I walk to school than when I walked around for an hour during the exercise. The second part of the exercise was to write a blog entry about it with my observations and contemplations. From the moment I left my door to the time I was walking back home, I heard many sounds that I usually would not have given much thought to. Above me, I heard the wind rustle the last remaining dry leaves in the tree on the street where I live. I heard an airplane roar overhead. Birds delicately chirped. I heard my own steady beat of the heels of my boots hitting the pavement as I walked. When an elderly woman walked past me, I heard the faint click of her cane against the ground. Because of the cold weather, there were not many people on the streets. The few people I did see contributed to the symphony of sound. A man walked past me at one point, and usually I wouldn't listen to his words. He was talking on his cellphone and he told someone on the other line that he would see at Rachel's. A woman walking her dog was interesting as well. As the dog tugged against the leash excitedly, she pulled back and said "Come on buddy." When I walked past the 99 cents store, a woman walked in and I heard the ding announcing the entrance of a customer. These are somewhat familiar sounds. However, at one point during the sound walk, I was scared out of my wits by a reckless driver. I was crossing the street at my allowed time as a pedestrian. I didn't think anything of it because the signal was for me to walk. Suddenly, an explosion of sound startled me and I jumped out of my skin. It was the eruption of an  angry car horn and the screech of brakes as an elderly man almost ran me over. He had missed the light and was going to fast. If I had been hearing impaired that would have been a very different scenario and I might not be writing this right now. I had an epiphany a few minutes later and realized that one can never take the senses one has for granted.  After that incident, I kept walking the streets. I heard the rush of cars and the hiccuping of a bus at a stop to let passengers out. I heard a group of school children speaking to each other in high pitched rapid outbursts. Usually I can hear a group of teenagers training for the military passing my house as they chant in loud voices, but they did not today. It is a challenge to isolate the sounds because I am always eager to seek out the visual source. There are so many sounds we miss.
          What did I learn after completing the exercise? This busy life where we are constantly pushed and pulled in different directions simultaneously leaves us both deaf and blind in some respect. We are left with neither of these senses heightened but rather left dull. It is our responsibility in some way as artists and creators, and more than that, as human beings, to explore and confront rather gloss over and neglect these magical tools. Everyday sounds that are taken for granted lead to sources of hidden stories.