Noise

I wrote this awhile ago.

In an environment so loud, how can one keep alert?

I am trying to write an intellectual piece but unfortunately there is that blaring sound coming from a nearby disco hall. The beats are loud enough as it is, but the MC or is it the DJ, seems to be an excited radio commentator-he is literally cheering on the songs. I try to focus, and then the sound of a cricket becomes distinct and clear. It pierces through the heavy music and injures my ear with its high tone.

Concentrating has never been as trying as this- but it takes more than a disco hall and a cricket's song to knock me off intellectual balance. So I proceed writing my piece.

I seem to be entranced by the hustle and bustle of life these days. The manufacture of noise is becoming very predominant. Everyone seems to be speaking and none is listening. Everywhere, there is noise.

Picture this: a six year old wakes up each morning and looks for a metal tin. After getting one, he picks a stick and starts hitting it very strongly. The sound is pounding but he is all the while nodding his head in enjoyment.

Well, this maybe a bit of hyperbole but when I look around, this is exactly what I see. Noise, which is too harmful for our health, has become a lifestyle. I pray you do not take on the presumption of thinking I mean noise which is otherwise referred to as "disorganised sound".

Every time I scroll through t.v channels, I am always met with a show of more flesh than I would like. As if that is not enough,the accompanying words are embarrassing to say. More than that, these words and images publish numerous ideas and emotions in the minds of many. The ideas and emotions go on to create new routines and ways of life.

It becomes pertinent for the young 19 year old to look fleshy and sexy. The taxi driver is not reluctant to dish out an insult to the my car gentleman who responds too slowly to the traffic lights for his liking. The young man then decides he is not a man until he has tasted of the secret called sex.

Corruption, insincerity, strife, indecency become a new noise that stifles the quietness and simplicity of truth, honesty, courtesy and decency. Suddenly worms come out of people's mouths; free porn is offered in the dressing of stylish young ladies without remorse; violence becomes a pass-time.

Noise. I cannot breathe easy because someone's smoking, or worse; someone's mouth is pungent with a cocktail of alcohol odour. Noise; that lady's cleavage is half-exposed; this old man is telling a friend of a sexual encounter he had with the neighbour's wife.

Everything seems to be dying. And no one seems to care. Culture is rotting away, replaced by rationalism, open-mindedness, freedoms and rights. Can I say that gays should not marry? No! I would be politically incorrect, even if I am also being open minded. Noise. I can't hear the quiet beat of my heart.

The piece I began is ending; unfortunately the noise isn't. It seems there are two disco halls competing now. Or is it DJ's?

The cricket fell quiet a while ago. I cannot escape the noise, so I must find the peace in the Nazarene.