In the Naked Light

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening

~ Paul Simon: The Sounds of Silence

Hmmm, if his advice has stood the test of 60 years, are we not overdue to heed it?

I have always admired Paul Simon’s song The Sounds of Silence for its stirring and poetic lyrics. But I had not investigated the deeper message of the song until now.

It explores the theme of communication breakdown and the resulting isolation in a world increasingly focused on superficial interactions and distractions – reflecting on the inability of people to connect on a deeper, emotional level, highlighting a sense of alienation and loneliness.

The song is 60 years old now but it strikes me that the lyrics are more relevant than ever in another context. We are living in a time of great divisiveness. It feels as if everyone has an axe to grind and is competing to see who can shout louder and drown out the rest of the voices.

I do not dispute that many people have legitimate grievances and a right to voice them. This is one of the foundations upon which democracy is built. (An aside: Democracy does not mean that the person with the loudest voice and the biggest platform to shout from – Donald Trump, for instance – earns the authority to impose his or her will upon others.)

The issue is becoming so caught up in our own concerns that we become blind to any other perspective. As Paul Simon so eloquently phrases it, this effectively becomes talking without speaking which equates to a kind of silence. Not the soothing silence of darkness, my old friend but rather of ten thousand people, maybe more… hearing without listening.

When we focus so much on trying to speak what we view as our own truth that we lose the ability to hear other people’s equally valid truth, we lose the ability to truly communicate and in turn the ability to love each other.

You may argue: Why should I have to compromise? Don’t I have the right to get what I want if I work for it? My response to that argument is that my truth will always be different from your truth. But there has to be a common ground we can land upon or we both lose. That common ground is called humanity.

And so, we all need to take to heart Paul Simon’s plaintiff plea and not let it fall like silent raindrops… echoed in the wells of silence:

“Fools”, said I, “You do not know

Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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