Noise

Noise is an interesting concept. It is generally considered a problem, but in many cases is a positive action.

I had a friend who was really disturbed by background noise in restaurants, particularly with a TV on. He went to the extreme of getting a pocket device that he could use to remotely turn a TV off and in eating places, he would use it and disgust the staff because they could not figure out why the TV was going off. It was humorous in a way.

Ever get blasted by young people with their car radios up loud? It can be very disgusting and in some cities, there are laws to prevent other people being disturbed.

Recently some kids has a party at their house that spilled out into the front yard. Neighbors called the police who came and told the kids to keep the music and noise down or they would be given a citation.

On airplanes, there are small children who cry and it disturbs other passengers. Frankly, it never bothered me, but I heard plenty of feedback from others about it.

On positive noise, I keep the TV on while I am working, and tuned to HGTV or something like that. I find the noise just makes me more comfortable.

Young people, when studying, have been shown to do better with their music playing.

So how do each of us handle this noise thing? Our ears can selectively tune out interference. At a family reunion or an event, the noise is a positive indicator of fun activity. Each of us get to selectively determine whether the noise is good or bad. If bad, we have to have patience and tolerance.

An interesting thing about us is that we can be in a large gathering and if talking to a single person, we can tune out everything except what we want to hear. It is amazing what our hearing process can do.

So just be observant and notice how you respond to different situations. Try intentionally to hear selective situations and enjoy or ignore the noise.