Can you hear me?

How window shopping spun me into a mini-crisis

Photo by kyle smith on Unsplash

I recently came across this book title whilst shopping for a friends birthday gift. I was adamant about finding her a book called Silence in the age of noise.

This book had followed me around the globe.

I saw it at the airport in Hong Kong

It saw me at a book fair in Brooklyn

I saw it again in Piccadilly Circus

We finally greeted each other at the Strand book shop

After getting acquainted I hid for a few days

This book helped me question my relationship with noise and information consumption. I started to enjoy sounds more.

• Birds talk a lot of shit in the morning
• Dogs argue a lot about who should pee on what pole
• Microwaves scream in pain when they cook your rice
• Doors sing songs when they squeak to inform the other doors someone is coming into the belly of the building

I wanted to get this for my friend who is struggling with building a better relationship with the noise around her.

On my way to find this book, I found two things.

1. A dyslexic shopping for a book is a real-life short film horror movie
2. Everyone browsing for books was wearing the same type of expression on their face; like they just stepped in shit and forgot their sunglass at home on a sunny day

I then saw it!

Outraged: Why Everyone is Shouting and No One is Talking

I saw this book and I could not stop re-reading the title. I understood the words but they did not digest well; like trying a new cocktail but there is too much ice to understand if it tastes good.

I think I just read the book without even opening it.

• What is the difference between shouting and talking?
• Are we listening or pretending?
• Why do we speak?
• Do you need to speak to be heard?

I will never read that book because I don’t want to know the answer I want to experience it.