I’m in my house for several hours and the entire time, football is blaring from the TV set. Then comes a DVD that I’ve seen/heard numerous times. I’m longing for some peace. So I share that I’m going for a little walk, and I keep my irritation to myself.

Outside. Man, I can’t get over the joy of having the quiet! The sun is setting and the view is tremendous… Best part about it is that it can’t talk to me! While I was out there communing with nature, it occurred to me that none of what bothered me was noise at all to Hubby. To him, it was a pleasant experience.

A couple of weeks ago I was pulled up to a stoplight with the car windows down waiting for my turn to “go.” Up comes a group of high school kids with their car windows down as well. They have a radio or CD player turned up full blast in the car. Their music to my ears is horrible. All I could think of was that the ear splitting sound was noise and not music.

A myriad of music selections traveled through my brain that I would much rather have been hearing…. some Beethoven, a little Mozart, Miles Davis perhaps, or music from Phantom of the Opera. I was aching for the light to change because this was really loud and irritating. At last I couldn’t take it anymore and I put the windows up in the car as they watched and laughed. What was noise to one was music to the other.

We each of us have our own idea of what is noise and what is peaceful or pleasant. We know what we like and what we need or want. We are filled with a desire to have it. Hopefully we weigh each other’s needs before we act upon it.

I am forced to remember a time when I was in college and home to my parents’ very small house for a visit. As a music major, I always had pieces of music upon which I worked to perfect and memorize. And I frequently had other homework, such as Humanities, History, European Authors, and I would work on all of these courses when I came home to visit. One Thanksgiving holiday when I was home, I had an extraordinary amount of homework. It was 2:30 a.m. and I was not finished. So I took a break.

A break to me is to play the piano… and now, as a mother and adult, I find it incredible that I chose to play the piano at 2:30 in the morning with my family all sound asleep. My brother and sister could sleep through a flash flood and trumpets. My mother as well… but my dad could not. I played for maybe 20 minutes and at last my father came out of the bedroom and said, “Carolyn, could you please play a piece that is less raucous? That would be so nice.” I said, “Yes,” and he thanked me and closed the door. He never once complained. He didn’t say how irritating my activity was. He didn’t tell me that this noise was interrupting his sleep and that he had to go to work the next day. He just asked for a more soothing piece of music.

I recall thinking at the time that I had been pretty insensitive. I did play something very quiet for a minute and then I quit. Now as I look back… and recalling the football, the loud DVD, the kids with the crazy music… sound travels so well and no one has ever laid claim to the air waves as we use them. They are free territory for any and all to chose to be responsible and sensitive toward others or to abuse. Sometimes we are responsible and sometimes we are not.

May you find yourself doing the former and experiencing less of the latter.

Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple