NewThis morning, when I switched on the computer, a question caught my eye. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?
The answers to this ranged from the scientific to the philosophical. The scientific explanation suggested that sound is made when air molecules vibrate and move in a pattern called waves, or sound waves. Others suggested that sound is a subjective interaction with matter. Sound is vibrations through a medium. Without humans to perceive it, those vibrations that we call sound, when the tree fell, would make vibrations, but "sound" as we know it, couldn’t exist, since no conscious being was there to interpret those vibrations.
It is a rhetorical question, read one response and warrants no answer as the answer is obvious.
I can think of many questions and I wonder if they too will generate similar responses. If a gun is fired and someone is shot, does it mean that it wasn’t fired because there was no one other than the dead victim to have heard the shot?
Must we be there physically to experience a Tsunami to acknowledge its occurrence? What about events that happen in cities, villages and far away places, where human lives are affected by hunger, rape, greed, war and more? Did they not occur if we were not there to witness them? Why must we be around to “hear the sound”?
Is a cry for help not a cry if we are not around to hear it? How many of us are really around to see or hear everything that is happening in our world? What an easy explanation for our lack of involvement! Can we not see the fallen tree and the effect that it has had on other trees and plants that grew around it? Can we not infer from that, the immense waves of molecular motion that might have been generated?
Is this the reason why we have become so detached from others? Are we taking the easy way out and giving up our obligations as fellow human beings when we give the excuse that we were not there? Doesn’t the phrase, “no news is good news” suddenly acquire a new connotation here? Must I sit back and assume all is well with the world just because I don’t have the time to read, listen or know?
What we need today, more than at any other time is the ability to listen to silent cries even amidst the noise and the confusion of everyday distractions and the ability to see suffering and pain clearly even when we may be surrounded by images of luxury and glamour. We must become aware of people because even if we are not there to receive the molecular vibrations or receive the sound waves they generate, we should be able to sense the hurt or their pleasure as they sense it and to perceive the causes as they perceive them.
Till we are able to accept responsibility without absolving ourselves by the simple excuse, “I wasn’t there”, we will continue to live as detached beings.
Wake up, people and listen to the sounds of the world!
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