PEACE

All I want is a bit of peace, that’s all, not too much to ask for is it

I’m talking about peace and quiet, that all too rare commodity in today’s world. We, as a culture, have been bombarded with sound. All day, every day we are aurally assaulted by sounds that actually have no relevance to us, sounds that infringe on our tranquil state.

On small screens there are commercials that always seem much louder than the programme that you are watching. YouTube has commercials popping up at an increasingly rapid rate. If you don’t want these constant interruptions you can pay to go “ad free”, yes pay for not having to listen to things that you have not asked to hear.

There are other sounds that are inflicted upon our unsuspecting lug holes such as the loud music played from passing cars. It is an immutable law that the volume of the music blasting out of a vehicle is inversely proportionate to the quality of the music, its never Bowie or Stevie Wonder or Miles Davis or Mozart, is it?

Beef is another decibel distraction. When I say “beef” I will point you to the Urban Dictionary: "beef" refers to a dispute, a grudge, or a prolonged argument between two or more people. Having a loud beefing session over the phone is now as ubiquitous as the sound of fireworks on November 5th. Why people feel the need to have beef -ups so publicly is beyond me. I think it’s probably the belief that if you lead a quiet life, you aren’t Instagram worthy or something like that.

To paraphrase the title of one of the great Hammer Horror films Cheap Headphones And Ear Buds Must Be Destroyed! If I want to hear the high-pitched buzzing from the hearing device of a commuter listening to MC Shizzle Boink featuring DJ Thrust, I’d put my head in a wasp’s nest as it would be far less painful.

Having just been on holiday I have had a taste of the quiet life. The joy of silence, the pleasure of peace, the thrill of tranquillity, the ability to do and say nothing, that we take for granted are amplified when you have a break from the chaos of the City’ aural experience.

The modern obsession is to fill in silences for the sake of it. Never has the saying “if you have nothing to say don’t say anything” been more appropriate.

My advice gentle reader is to find some time for silence, some time to simply sit in peace and quiet and reset your brain. There’s plenty of time for noise, plenty of time for music , plenty of time for discourse and not enough time for silence, unless you make the time.