Sounds in the Silence

Away from our beloved Mountains for a week, we couldn't resist the chance to regain some altitude, and drove to the top of Mount Vincent, one of the highest points between Coopernook and Lansdowne, north of the Manning River.  It was an interesting drive, often at little more than walking pace, through damp gullies and up steep, rocky ridges - always surrounded by soaring tree trunks.

We did so because my wife's mum and aunts had told many fond tales of their childhood days at Langley Vale, a village now vanished, that once thrived near the Langley Bros Timber Mill, on the Lansdowne River.  The men of the family had worked at the mill, or cut timber for it, and the children had walked for miles across neighbouring farms and followed the old Langley Vale Tramway up through the forested gullies and ridges to picnic on the rocky heights of Mt Vincent.

The first thing that struck us was the view.  Vast sweeps of farmland and forested ridges, cut through by slow winding rivers, spread out to the south and near west.  Further out to the west, mountain ranges framed the sky, while north west soared the jagged remnants of old volcanoes, now clothed in temperate rain forest.  Even northeast, the ocean view was partially obscured by a sudden mountain. 

Distant towns, and the city of Taree were tiny specks in the vista, and a long white line of surf marked the edge of Australia and the beginning of the Pacific Ocean.

The second, notable thing was not the silence, but the sounds we could hear coming to us from miles away - cows bellowing in paddocks half a kilometre below and several kms away - the siren of an ambulance - first heard while it was still ten kms away, drawing nearer until it stopped somewhere in the village of Lansdowne.  A dog barked, and we looked down to see a tiny black speck, far below, helping its master muster cattle.

Though we live in the middle of the Blue Mountains National Park, in one of the little towns threaded like shiny beads along the Great Western Highway, and thus imagine we are in a quiet place, the silence further out, away from the surf-like roar of highways and main roads, and the accumulated hum and grumble of myriad airconditioners, mowers, cars, stereos, and businesses, is at a different order of magnitude.

Most humans now live in an ocean of sound unlike anything that has existed for most of the history of the human race - back in the village, sitting in the sun on the front verandah of the aunt's house, I was privy to every conversation in houses a hundred metres away, to the half-cocked first crowing of a young rooster on another block, the distant conversation of cattle and farm dogs, and the many birds that patrolled the yards and gardens in their constant search for food, shelter, and company.

 Silence can seem a distant memory if too many of these guys are about, though.

That I could hear  all these things so clearly (despite old ears battered by decades of violent noises and now awash in the cricket like tones of tinnitus) is testament to the amount of noise we now inflict upon ourselves and the world around us.

We adapt to the background noise after a while, just as our noses adapt to ambient smells, and our eyes to the light available.  Yet even as we adjust our perceptions, and filter out the input our brain classifies as least important, we are still buffetted by it - often to the point of significant physical and psychological stress. 

So, when you feel the need to wander among the trees, or to sit on a rock and listen to the water tumbling downstream, or to luxuriate in the crackling warmth of a campfire, far from the hustle and bustle, perhaps you are not, as some would have it, being self indulgent.  At some deeper level, you are seeking what you need for the sake of your own wellbeing.

Quiet

Can you operate successfully in the noisy, busy world of modern civilization, yet, when the opportunity presents itself, happily do your own thing in solitude?  When the music has been cranked up, and the party is raging, are you one of those people who is happier outside at the edge of the venue, talking to one or two other like-minded people?  Or perhaps you aren't talking at all, but observing the behaviour of the other party goers - maybe taking notes (mental or on paper) for your next short story or novel.

We occupy a world that has seen a century in which Salesmanship and Showmanship have come to be far more valued than ethics and honesty - appearance valued more than integrity and substance - and success at any cost has become the guiding principle for a large percentage of the business and political  operators of today. 

Loud, bright, shiny, and colourful are the qualities looked for by too many recruiters and promoters, and, sadly, voters - and those of us who appreciate the gentle noise of a breeze in a forest, the calm crackle of a small campfire, the song of water searching for a way to the ocean, and the calm conversation of thoughtful friends, are often left wondering if there is something deficient in our psychological make up.

Because we prefer to work on our own, or with one or two trusted, like-minded collaborators, we begin to think that we are a rarity, an oddity - that humans are meant to have loud, aggressive, abrasive, in-your-face, look-at-me, aren't-I-wonderful, personalities. A significant part of the human race is like that, but far from all of it. Introverts are everywhere, and though they are frequently drowned out by the bustle and noise of the extroverts, and even looked down on by the extrovers as less capable, they are often the ones who are achieving more, while making far less fuss. 

Susan Cain has written an interesting book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - and she makes a convincing case in this TED talk for the worth of the quiet people of this world.

She charts the rise of the "extrovert" and personality obsessed culture of the United States that began in the 19th century and ramped up in the early 20th with the rise of people like Dale Carnegie (How to win friends and influence people) as well as other drivers in the psychological fields - much of it less science than opinion.  The many and varied "Self Help and Actualisation Movements" that have flourished and spread around the world have focused on instilling into their followers the personality traits and characteristics of extroverts - and those traits do not sit well with introverts.

Cain points to the research that shows that even we introverts can make the mistake of thinking that the extrovert is somehow more capable or competent in positions of power or command, when, in fact, such personalities can too easily push on, compounding their initial mistakes with further errors, and leading their followers or organisation to disaster.

I can recommend Quiet as an antidote to the constant pressure from the modern media - social and commercial - that says we should follow the extrovert road instead of that lovely, quiet, interesting, introvert path that might take us to far more interesting places.  It contains chapters that look at a wide range of research into the psychology, neurology, and brain chemistry of  human beings, and will help its readers take a few more steps along the road to understanding ourselves and those around us.