‽istis reclaims sound and silence - unnatural, natural,
supranatural… (weekending April 18th 2020)
‽istis stops for a moment and listens to sound and silence, perhaps possibly, maybe unnatural, natural or supranatural…?
‽
Perhaps many
sounds less, many sounds fewer: motorways, skies, shipping lanes; piazzas,
shopping centres and markets; cafés, pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas,
concert halls; places of worship; village halls, community centres; playgroups,
nurseries, children’s centres, schools, colleges and universities; buses and
trains, stations and airports; leisure centres, gyms, stadia, sports grounds
and parks – cities, towns and even-quieter-than-usual villages.
‽
Possibly ‽istis
hears more, naturally: a country funeral for someone who loved music, had
planned the hymns and the organ voluntary, the readings and the poems – held
with a small group of family and silent witnesses dotted around the English
churchyard – hearing the fly past of insects (a military man, somehow fitting)
and a blackbird, not letting the going be gentle, fanfaring the rite of passage
with glorious defiance from a tree top.
‽
Maybe other
sounds fill the air and the airwaves:
· the hubris, defensiveness, apology-if-anyone-thinks-an-apology-is-needed,
the presenting of evidence (or not) or the caution of a press conference;
· the ‘no, you go ahead’ sub-aqua-style burblings
of on-line meetings;
· the missing-you, familiar banter and ‘strange
times’ video exchanges between family and friends – kisses blown between partners,
from children to grandparents and back;
· the working from home background music, maybe
still a little guiltily played (but perhaps not as guiltily done as the emails
sent and received between colleagues still in pyjamas);
· the shouting, silence, anger and crying (loud
or inward) of abuse – possibly the norm, maybe new, in relationships where
heightened stress may, at a stretch, just about contribute to the search for a
clinical explanation but never, never provide an excuse;
· the louder-than-usual conversations between
friends and neighbours after physical-distancing, are we far enough away yet?
encounters in the street or on the footpath;
· the voices in the head, longstanding or recent;
· the rolling wheels of a walking support frame
assisting a heroic veteran, inspiring generosity, helping health and social care
staff
· the 24hr news on radio, TV, laptops and phones
– dominated by COVID-19, perhaps overshadowing or masking the news from
elsewhere and otherwise;
· …and yes, the loud or silent sound of extra
grief…
And ‽istis, wonders at the presence or absence of supranatural sounds: one hand clapping? the sound of Occam’s razor paring away at faith in an apparently silent or silenced Deity? the quiet insidious spread of infection along personal, organisational, national, international and deeply embedded structural veins of vulnerability and discrimination?
But, again, for it is a Thursday in the UK, ‽istis joins in the new tradition sound: of applause for the essential workers, for social care staff, for health care staff; the sound of so many people standing in solidarity and appreciation and hope alongside the hand-made rainbows…
© Pistis
