Hearing Impaired...

Everyday I walk to work and almost everyday I have my headsets on listening to music or an audio book… I am not alone. As I breeze by people, nearly touching shoulder to shoulder in the morning urban concrete grid, I realize that I don’t hear them… and they don’t hear me but all of us are moving to a rhythm of some sorts. I imagine some use music to help gather their thoughts, for relaxation, to learn something new, to psyche them up for the crappy day ahead of them, or just to pass the time from A to B. Whatever the case, it is somehow better then hearing what is actually happening in the real world. The mixed sounds of horns beeping, the TTC grinding its metal wheels against needing to be repaired rails, to the dissolving voices of people as you walk by each restaurant and patio; the realness of the everyday grind is being fluffed out for something better between our ears.

There’s no real point to this except a couple of months ago I glanced straight up on the clearest of all days and noticed how wonderful the sky really is; how it resembles the vast imagination we all have inside. And today I wonder if I am drowning out how the worlds sounds as it is changing; or am I becoming part of the change? Will we all no longer hear each other as we walk by one another?

I hope not. I hope I always remember to look up at the big endless sky and listen when people want to be heard when it matters most to them.

Frick' I'm cheese... better next one.