I was reminded of something the National Park Service’s Kurt Fristrup had said, that unless we learn to make cities sound better, we stand at risk of losing the range of this precious sense. He calls our tendency to wear earbuds during all hours of the day “learned deafness.” We are tuning out the real world in favor of our own personal soundscapes. The cost is we forget how to listen. And we lose an opportunity for true mental restoration.
