Sep
2
2016
White Noise
Posted in Daily Living 2 Comments
When my children were napping in the portable crib downstairs, I vacuumed next to them.
Some people thought I was crazy.
You will wake them up, I heard over and over.
Actually the reverse happened; they learned to sleep through anything.
With a family of five children, there was always noise and activity.
Music was playing.
People were talking.
Laughing was ongoing.
Yet, the babies slept.
Did you ever notice that about noise?
After a while, you get used to it.
After a while, you don’t even hear it any longer.
White noise.
Defined as a heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range.
However, it also means a constant background noise; one that drowns out other sounds.
White noise is meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter.
We get very used to white noise.
Perhaps the hum of the vacuum was white noise to my sleeping children.
After a while, white noise becomes part of the background of sounds.
White noise is never noticed until it is gone.
Whenever there is a power failure during a thunderstorm, I notice it.
Our refrigerator hums.
When the power goes out, the refrigerator stops humming.
We do not notice silence until we really experience it.
True silence.
No white noise.
No background sounds.
No meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter.
A poem by Wendell Berry came to mind.
It is called, The Peace Of Wild Things.
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
For Wendell Berry, there is a peace in nature.
There is a peace in the wild things that are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing.
There is peace in being a participant observer.
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
I would argue that resting in God’s grace makes us truly free.
One is truly free after one comes to Jesus in faith.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)
Only in Christ is there true freedom.
However, I understand what Wendell Berry means.
Berry has never lost his wonder.
Berry knows that even in the wildness of nature, there is peace and stillness.
There is quiet and an absence of distracting white noise.
We are very protective, as parents, as to what we allow into our homes.
We are careful about what movies are watched and what music is listened to.
We would not allow a loud mouth, arrogant person to shout at us in our homes.
Our homes are safe havens and we try desperately to keep them that way.
In this political season, the amount of yelling and name calling is like nothing I have ever seen.
Even when I look at a picture of a political candidate, the body language is one of anger.
The facial expressions exude anger.
Anger seems to be the presiding emotion and I have had enough.
I am tired of the white noise of anger.
I am tired that it seems to be constantly in the background.
I would ask a person to leave my home with the kind of rhetoric I routinely hear.
If I would not tolerate it, then why am I allowing it in my home just by calling it news.
Our children have sensitive hearts.
I don’t think we realize what our children internalize in the white noise they hear around them.
I don’t think we realize how very much it hurts their heart.
I feel sorry for the younger ones who cannot articulate the depths of their feelings.
The white noise of anger has to stop.
It drones on and on.
It is always in the background.
We don’t realize it until we turn it off and hear the beauty of the silence.
A power failure will silence the hum of my refrigerator.
Perhaps turning off the TV and the news will be the answer to the white noise of anger.
The white noise of anger has permeated our culture.
We are allowing it when we fail to say, I’ve had enough!
I’ve had enough!
I’ve had enough!
Turn it off and listen to the stillness.
Turn it off and listen to the sound of peacefulness.
We are so used to the yelling, and name calling, and self aggrandizing that we forget.
We forget the peace of wild things.
We forget the peace of seeing the quiet beauty of nature all around us.
We fail to realize that we are hearing sound bites meant to sway us one way or another.
I’ve had enough!
Enough white noise of anger.
Enough body language of hate.
Enough finger pointing, and red faces, and loud voices.
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)
That exaltation is the only thing we should be hearing.
Our faces should be looking heavenward in praise.
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)
The stones will cry out in praise.
No white noise of anger.
Just the sound of praise.
The sound of praise from our lips.
The sound of praise from all creation.
The peace of wild things is possible because they are praising God by being what He intended.
Our peace is possible when we know that He is God.
Our body language is one of hands raised in prayer not fingers pointing in anger;
Our lips sing of His glory; they are not meant to yell at another person He has made.
Anger and hate are not welcome here.
The white noise of this ugliness must stop.
I’ve had enough!
Have you?
Yes! And sorry to say I see the anger in fellow Christians. Let us pray instead of judge. We know that God is in control and this coming election is in His hands. I wish there was a limit to the political commercials; PBS stations are the only way to avoid them and I look at them whenever possible. Peace, everyone, peace!
Sue,
It is a difficult time in our country right now, though I know and trust that God is in control. That is where I hang my hope.
Gina