Dangerous Noise

We were sitting outside, cooling off in the shade after taking a walk in the heat and humidity of an Alabama June day.

The RocketMan was talking about his work.  If you aren't aware, I'm a Philosophy major married to a Mechanical Engineer.  He builds space flight hardware. A lot of the talk about his work goes way over my head.  Newton's second law and The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation and such are formulas

I am aware of, but not things I use in my daily life.
He, however, does.
Use them in his daily life.
 I think.

 So as he talks about technical things, I often find myself blinking, smiling, nodding, and desperately trying to pick up on one piece of the information he is sharing so I can ask an intelligent question.  

He, in turn, gets a pained expression on his face if I talk about Aristotle, Kierkegaard, or Hegel.
So we're really a matched pair.
And for the record, I seldom talk about Aristotle, Kierkegaard, or Hegel anymore.
But there was a time when I did and he was a good sport and he listened,
even though he said it hurt his head.
I feel your pain, there, RocketMan!

As I was saying,  he was talking about his project and something he said hit me like a bolt of lightning.  He was talking about his space flight hardware and said,  

The noise can be thought of as high frequency energy. 

It can cause a great deal of damage.

Wait, what?
Of course, he was talking about one thing but what he said caused me to take notice and consider noise and acoustics in a different way.  

I have a remedial understanding of the physics involved in sound and noise.  Noise is generally considered to be unpleasant sound. Both sound and noise are transmitted by vibrations through the air, but sound is much preferable to noise when it is processed in our brain.  I think I have that right.  

Friends, I don't have to tell you we are living in troublesome times.
Politics
Pandemic
Economics
Social Unrest

All you have to do is turn on the TV,
check the news on your computer,
take a look at any number of social media outlets.
Or try to have a conversation with someone.

Evidence of this turmoil is everywhere you go.
People on the street corners with signs
Masks
Angrily hurled epitaphs
People out of work
Name calling
Businesses closed
Mobs destroying everything in sight
Fists raised
Grand gestures
Everyone has feelings...myriad feelings
And those feelings are mighty noisy

The world seems to be spinning out of control.
And the vibrations of this spinning is creating such noise as I have never experienced.
It is damaging and ripping the very fabric of our everyday lives.

The noise in my head and heart caused by the vibrations of hate and discontent in the world is nearly unbearable.  So many feelings abound and so much rhetoric surrounds us.
It is deafening. No matter what the hot topic of the day, there is the accompanying noise.

Ever present
Eardrum pounding
Glass shattering
Heart breaking
High frequency
Damaging
Noise

When the RocketMan told me noise energy damages the hardware,
he also explained that they were taking precautions.
They are moderating, absorbing, and dampening the noise to protect the hardware.

So, too, must I moderate the noise around me to protect my head and my heart.
By limiting time watching the news
By stepping away from social media
By choosing my words carefully
By showing love to all I meet
By standing firm on the Rock of Ages
By starting and ending my day in prayer and conversation with The Father,
and having conversation with Him throughout the day
By knowing the most important conversation I have is with Him

and by dwelling here;

Finally, brethren, 
whatever is true,
whatever is honorable,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure, 
whatever is lovely, 
whatever is of good repute,
if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.
 Philippians 4:8 nasb

I'm striving daily to spend more time dwelling on those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and of good repute. That is the best way I have found to moderate the noise of the world around me.

~mollianne