As the year continues, many of these posts will be philosophical in nature. Some will be in contradiction to previous postings. These are not intended as truths or assertions, they’re merely thoughts…ideas. Think of this as stream of consciousness over a wide span…
It’s funny the way sounds can trigger memories.
There’s a storm moving into the area this morning. With the blinds down and the lack of light coming in through the windows, I heard what I thought was rain in the trees outside. When I actually stepped outside, everything was still dry. It had just been heavier wind than usual through the trees…that soothing pink noise wash. It was the wash that reminded of the first time I used pink noise as a sweetener for a stadium crowd. I had been under a tight deadline, and the best crowds in the library just didn’t have the right feel. I’m not sure what made me throw pink noise into the mix. I hadn’t tried it before, but “knew” it would work. Thankfully, it did. After this thought ran through my head, the sound made me recall another moment from when I was on a backpacking trip in college.
It was morning, had just finished raining, and I needed to step a little further out into the woods for the usual biological needs. When I was done, I was shocked by how loud the forest felt because of all of the water falling off of the trees. Looking back on it now, it had that same pink noise quality underneath the drips (or at least my brain is telling me it did…possibly altered memories). What made the situation unique was that, despite having only gone about 75-100 feet away from the camp, I couldn’t hear my friends anymore. I stepped off in the direction I had come from, and couldn’t find the camp. Turned out I hadn’t actually come from that direction, and was now completely directionless. Calling out and using one of those emergency whistles we were all carrying elicited no responses. I eventually found my way down to the trail and circled back up to the camp…only hearing them calling my name and using the whistles when I was about 50 ft away from it again.
One sound, two unrelated events, and my mind is already racing towards other connected thoughts through tangents other than sound. It’s good to remember how stimulating even the simplest sounds can be.