Hear Jim Reed’s new edition of Red Clay diary: https://youtu.be/CB5lUy3UaKQ
or read his transcript below:
I round the corner of the granite building, walking briskly on the way to work.
At the corner, Reverend Chris the security guard stands solid as a rock. He’s the overseer for the attorneys who occupy the structure next door to my shop.
Today, Chris is not the happy cheerer-upper I’m accustomed to. Today, he is keeping his solitary distance. He is bemasked and gloved, but he is still there to protect this corner of a city block. He is protecting himself from me. He is protecting me from himself. Like the Lone Rearranger, he is comforting.
Chris’ mask seems to mute him, as if his words would bounce back to him, unheard.
I wave and smile and attempt to delegate cheer to him.
That’s the way things are these days on the tumbleweed streets of the viral town.
LOOKING FOR COMFORT AND COMPASSION, I DIG THROUGH THE RED CLAY DIARY AND FIND JOY IN THIS ENTRY…I hope you do, too:
WHERE SILENCE REIGNS, ALL IS CALM AND BRIGHT
–Hans Christian Andersen
That seems true, Hans. The opposite also seems true. What’s that about?
In other words, one might say:
Where words fail, music speaks.
Where music fails, words sing.
Where silence reigns, all is calm and bright.
The world is so full of highly pumped sound, over-the-top words, whispers corrupted into shouts, noise filling every possible solitude. So full. So loud. So chock-full.
Do you recall what non-sound sounds like?
Do you ever listen to the quiet?
Do you long for a Cone of Silence to descend over you once in a while?
Would you like to spend an hour inside a bubble of solitude?
Some will say, “Yes, bring me a reflective, soundless interval, away from everything that is being pushed at me. Make me a non-consumer for an hour. Pretend I’m not anywhere you can get at me for a while. Eventually, I may return to you refreshed and invigorated.”
Others will say, “Whattayatalkingabout? Who wants to spend one minute without music and commercials and texting and tweeting and continuous conversation and television talk and unreality shows? Who wants to be bored? Silence is disturbing!”
Still others will say, “There’s no solution. Sequential, aggressive, repetitive sound is everywhere and impossible to escape. Everybody embraces it, so it must be right.”
And those who are up to the brim will say, “There is a solution. I can take charge any time I wish. I can stop abruptly, pull the plug, remove the batteries, throw the circuit-breaker, run and hide from the wordy and the wired, close my eyes to the horrorsayers and vulgarians, resist the temptation to see and hear the Next Thing Up.”
Looks like three alternatives are presenting themselves to us.
Ready to chose? What’s behind Option Number One. Or Two. Or Three?”
And am I prepared to open the door and take the consequences?
Here I go
© Jim Reed 2020 A.D.