Take Time

 

Too Loud, Man

(title taken from "Banana Boat (Day-O)", the Stan Freberg version of the Jamaican folk song that was released in 1957. It features a bongo-playing beatnik (Peter Leeds) who "don't dig loud noises". Neither do I. Check it out here. )

Modern life is just too loud. It's as if they've turned the volume way up, and then wrecked the controls...

I started thinking about this topic a while ago, debating on why I tend to use headphones while travelling to and from work. Here's the post. I've developed on a bit since then, realised that this is mostly my own particular aversion to noise. So, why am I so sensitive?

There are times when I simply can't stand the cacophony generated from an excessively noisy world. However, it's a little more complicated than that. Of course it is.

Because a good deal of the noise comes from inside my own head.

You see, my mind constantly hums with thoughts, ideas, and dreams. Some of these thoughts get processed in this blog, or get channelled into other writing. A small proportion is kept to myself - heck, I simply daren't share for fear of upsetting anybody... it's between myself and my Lord...

Add to that the background noise of everyday life, and that's why it can get to be overwhelming.

I can't hear myself think.

Perhaps that's why the peace and quiet of camping appeals to me so much... it reduces the input, allows me time to process and digest some of the things that I am thinking about.

It also explains why it takes me a while to drop off to sleep at night. If the hamster running around in my head never rests, neither do I.  I guess that's why my mind gets extra busy right before bedtime, preventing me from dropping off right away...

The Obstreperous Environment Of An Open-Plan Office

I think that a couple of my colleagues were still in a bit of a playful mood after their weekend away. Don't get me wrong, they are great people, but tend to get a bit carried away when thinking of ways to improve things... Suddenly, they had a brilliant idea. Why not take away all of the dividers between the desks and make the office truly open-plan? Wouldn't that be great?

My heart sank.

My office can be such a noisy place at best of times. Can you imagine what work could be like without these dividers, designed to reduce the sound levels? These dividers give each individual a little bit of precious privacy, a chance for a break from distractions - and each can be 'personalised' somehow so that staff can get their own special workspace.

It doesn't bode well.

Open-plan offices are great for extroverts, people who thrive in more lively environments. These are the ones who say this will lead to better camaraderie, better communication. They love the buzz - even a radio in the background on certain days.

However, open-plan is not so good for introverts like myself. We need to be able to focus, and an open-plan layout simply means constant distraction - and yet another blow for privacy in the workplace.

There's already been some talk of talking it one step further, and of introducing 'hot-desking' - that's where employees don't actually have a fixed desk, but use a different one each day. (Incidentally, I understand the method now used for this practice in the US is "hotelling").

And there's even talk in our office of allowing more staff a chance to work from home one day a week - perhaps allowing more employees to be employed at fewer desks. That could well be the only positive in the whole idea...

I shall see how this progresses. 

Slowing Down

Life seems to be one long succession of deadlines and crises. A whole load of complications and unexpected difficulties all coming together. You know what I mean. Suddenly, it's all kicking off.

And here I am in the midst, trying desperately to stay focused, stay anchored; let's face it, to stay sane...

All is changing by the minute. It can be a full-time job just keeping up. And yet, the most important question for me right now is:

Can I hear God’s voice above all the noise?

I need to be still. To find that little niche of calm, of reflection on what has proved to be another chaotic day. I'm trying to slow down, but find my mind still racing...

I need to wait upon the Lord. To seek Him in silence and solitude, to hear His voice.

Regretfully, there's not much quiet on the 1627 to Dartford, this evening. (sigh)

Help me find that calm, Lord.

Help me find you tonight.

Help me to slow down.

Keeping My Cool

As the clocks change and the nights draw in, the cycle of the seasons will start to indicate when I'll need to wear a thicker coat when going off to work. It's nearly time!

However, there's no indicator to tell me when I need to 'keep my cool'. And I really found it hard today.

Hard to stay cool when chaos reigns during a particularly busy day in the office. Raised voices and lots of phone interruptions made the office far too noisy for me today! Thankfully I wasn't one of the raised voices!

Hard to stay cool when someone asks you to help them - five minutes before you're due to go home. Sorry, I can't stay late tonight, another commitment later... it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Hard to stay cool when it's standing room only on your train, as they cancelled the one before and this one only has four coaches... and add to that the fact that the kids are off school and all the noisiest ones are in my carriage. It's cramped, noisy, hot. Horrible.

Because I'm on the train now. Nothing to see outside, the winter nights have descended. On go the headphones, so that I can try and find my own little oasis of calm before my evening's voluntary commitment. I'm concentrating on writing some words for my next blog entry. These very words.

Enhance your calm. Breathe. It'll only be a little while longer.

Keep cool. :)

Shouty People

I have a real problem with "increased volume for emphasis". It's so prevalent in the city, where there's so much competition for business. You often hear people raising their voices to sell their own position, drowning you and any other opposition out. In the Square Mile, sales pitches at raised volume are common, in offices, on the street corners, standing outside the pubs.

The BBC programme 'Horrible Histories' refers to people like that as 'shouty people'. In the show, the 'shouty man' is the stereotypical advertising bloke who tries to sell you a range of quite awful products...

I don't respond well to 'shouty people'. I'd far rather listen calmly to persuasive detail than to aggressive personality. Try the hard sell on me at high volume and you've lost me straight away. Even if your product is the best thing since sliced bread...

And whilst we are on the subject, I also don't respond well to being shouted at. It's disconcerting, and possibly a waste of energy on your part - it'll make me think twice about whatever point you are trying to make to me.

Loud Noises!

A while ago now, I had become aware that there were a number of people who could be found sitting on their own in the loudest pubs. Now, I doubted at the time if this was for the company; you couldn't talk even if you wanted to, the din was just overwhelming. They weren't socialising, could it be just for the music? Or was it because they wanted the cacophony to drown out their own thoughts - bad memories, overwhelming feelings, perhaps their own conscience?

I tried an experiment the other day. In an effort to gain insight into a little of this, I took out my personal headphones (which I must admit I use a lot of the time as a social defence), unplugged the MP3 player and tried just to listen to - nothing in particular. Trying to understand why real life would need drowning out...

I experienced:

• The train carriage to work, where conversation was kept to a minimum. Some read books, others listened to music, caught 40 winks, typed on a laptop, tweeted. In a carriage of 150 or so, only two people talked. I wasn't one of them.
• The city streets, the hustle and bustle, where you make a beeline for your office, avoiding the 'chuggers' and free newspaper distributors. Hardly a problem. Probably well advisable to keep the headphones out if you are crossing the road...
• The workplace, where small talk about last night's football mixes with arguments over office politics and 'storms in teacups'. Ugh - can I put the headphones in again please? I promise to take them out if the phone rings...
• The coffee shop at lunchtime - here at last was a place of calm where you can relax and be yourself for a while. Not the person you 'need to be to get through the day'. Here was the place that I found people chatting. Yay! Although, even here I found the coffee shops were still a little noisy due to piped music. At least the refreshments were better than the office. Note: I understand that others preferred the pub down the road. That's fine, other places of refreshment are available...

What did I get out of the experience? A profound insight into the way that some of us have kind of lost the art of conversation. We have been blessed with a plethora of gadgets that assist us in communicating with friends on the other side of the country, even the world - but we struggle with talking to our neighbours, even our family members in the same room.... We have become adept in shutting others out, controlling our lives by avoiding unnecessary social contact. Yes, even me - with my 'headphone' trick.

As a society, we have exchanging the quiet chat with mates for solitary time with a soundtrack of 'loud noises'. Are we scared of letting others in? In letting real life in? In letting God in? 

I've taking this on board as a bit of a challenge. Not for me to continue to 'shut the world out', but for me to come up with a way to help others to come back out into the world.

Picture: Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) from "Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy". You'll get the reference if you've seen the film...