Cruise Texts 5. Take out the earpods!
Last year I was asked to write a series of blogs for publication. As ever, they disappeared down a rabbit hole, having just uncovered them, they are I feel ripe for release so here they are. Written whilst on a cruise around the North Sea and the North Atlantic on the P&O Cruises cruise ship Aurora organised by Laura Childs of Pure Travel. Hence Cruise Texts.
Its time to take out your ear pods and make the most of nature’s natural soundtrack.
So many of the modern world’s trappings and ‘benefits’ allow us to isolate ourselves from the very source of health, well being and wisdom our natural world has to offer. The very technology designed to help us communicate actually isolates us in ways never possible before.
They also allow us to delegate responsibility for our actions and behaviours in ways never available before. A text allows to hide from painful or difficult conversations we maybe shouldn’t make, calling in sick for example, when we are not.
However, possibly the most isolating aspect of smart phones and the internet has to be the application of ear pods to our smartphone internet philosophy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love listening to music. In fact, my love of music is one of my major driving forces. I’ll sit and listen to music, and maybe read book rather than put the TV on. I also love going to outdoor festivals and gigs too. There’s a time and a place for all things.
However, there’s such a beautiful life affirming aspect to the natural soundtrack of life that you have to wonder why so many of us isolate ourselves from one of the most beautiful elements of life, on this life supporting planet. That might be the beautiful song of robins, wrens and thrushes, the calls of buzzards, peewits or even sheep. Children in a school at playtime, wind in the trees, or the sound of rainfall in a storm. I even enjoy the sound of unsilenced engines, the burbling of a V8 car engine, or the scream of an unsilenced four stroke motorcycle (albeit, not all day long). Even the sound of human conversation in a bar, or the sound of a crowd at a rugby or football match gives an amazing feeling of connection.
These are the sounds of life affirming humanity and the creatures and elements that we share the planet with. They give us connection, remind us we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and even remind us to breathe, and simply appreciate the taste of the air around us.
The sound of life is still there even if we can’t see it, whether due to blindness, physically or naturally and is often there even if we are in isolation for any reason, because of work, or illness, maybe even of choice.
The use of ear pods isolates us from the world we inhabit, that gives us everything we need, if we let it.
If we are aware of what is happening around us at any given time, then we are existing in the present, yesterday is in the past and what is to come is, well, still to come. The business meeting will wait. Maybe it should have been scheduled at a more appropriate time. The phone call can wait. If the call is important, then that’s why we have answer phones.
Why do we have our phones turned on during important meetings and then answer them with the phrase, ‘I can’t talk now, I’m in a meeting’. Don’t answer and then call them back later. Respect those you are in the meeting with.
Maybe we need to take a step back even further. Not only leave the earpods in the box, but turn off all notifications too. You can still check social media when its appropriate to do so. Check missed calls when its appropriate to do so. Use whatever app, when its appropriate to do so.
That doesn’t mean ear pods don’t have a place in our world. My son spends a lot of time in the cab of a grass cutter at work, he’s a green keeper. He uses noise cancelling ear pods and listens to pod casts to alleviate the boredom and educate himself at the same time.
It maybe that on a long train journey the sounds you choose to listen to through ear pods add to the view out of the window and also don’t distract anyone else there at the time.
However, sound connects us to the world around us, possibly more than any other sense. So maybe it’s as the cliché says, ‘everything in moderation’.
Why would we isolate ourselves from the very thing that gives us life.
Simon Pollard July 2024
