For The Record-26. July. 2025

Some thoughts on the sounds of silence, and small steps each of us can take to avoid it.

In my ongoing quest to stop shopping in the Husky section stay in shape, I’ve been using my lunch break to go for walks. Actually, that’s only partially true; I also use that time to think; sometimes it’s parsing out whatever you’ll eventually read here on the screen, and sometimes I just let my mind wander wherever it wants to go. These are trips my Air pods never come on.

If this sounds a bit woo, trust your gut. However, initially, it also had a much more practical purpose: I was trying to walk in silence to preserve my hearing. 20- 30 minutes here and there doesn't seem like a large amount, but everything adds up over time, and hearing loss is no different. Little respites here and there matter.

The fallacy here is that, absent a few highly modified spaces, there's no such thing as true silence. And if there is, you're probably in space, and no one'll hear you scream. And if anywhere is "unsilent," it's your local airport.

I've been at this a long time, and even in the deepest depths of COVID, there was still noise. In almost 30 years, the only times I've felt what was true quiet were:

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