Ears to Hear

Gracia Lam

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy 

Do you hear what I hear 

Ringing through the sky shepherd boy 

Do you hear what I hear 

A song, a song High above the trees 

With a voice as big as the sea 

With a voice as big as the sea 

12 

An ear that hears and an eye that sees.

    the Lord made them both.

Proverbs 20:12 The Hebrew Bible -- Robert Alter Translation

 Yesterday I was awake in the wee hours of the morning so didn't feel all that energetic as the day began. We decided to head out for a paddle just the same, and our kayaks were already on the roof of our vehicle. Because it was a bit breezy we chose a section of the Salmon River which is within the Tyendinaga Reserve, less than half an hour away.

 It is quite pretty but not our usual first choice because of the prospect of  noise. Highway 2 is nearby for a good portion of the stretch we paddle and Highway 401, Canada's busiest, is to the north. There is also a train trestle which sees frequent crossings. Yesterday, a Saturday morning, a din began just before 9:00 AM, an unexpected roar which we realized was the nearby motorsport park. There are a few cottages and a couple of farms along the river and we tried to imagine what it's like for these folk when the raceway is under full throttle. And what is it like for the creatures along the river, including the domestic animals? 

The paddle which we hoped would calm our spirits didn't. Yes, we saw turtles and blue herons and an osprey. The monarch butterflies and dragonflies were out in abundance. These were gifts from the Creator, but the assault on our ears made it difficult to be grateful for the experience. 

A couple of days ago I listened to a repeat broadcast of a CBC Radio The Current episode from February about the implications of our noisy environment and it includes a conversation with David Owen author of Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World:

"Especially since the Industrial Revolution, we've produced a lot of very loud sounds — sounds that we didn't really evolve to cope with — and it's taken a toll on our hearing. We evolved in a very different sound environment — thunderstorms and waterfalls and growling animals and things like that." 

Alas, we spend a fair amount of time repeating ourselves to one another, a constant reminder of our failing hearing. Owen notes that we don't become deaf in our sixties, it is a gradual process which is the result of the endless assault on this marvelous sense.

 As I've noted before, Jesus said "let anyone with ears to hear listen." This is also a message of the prophets. Surely this includes our ability to hear the chorus of Creation in a time when we are drowning out the sounds of other creatures, to our physical, psychological, and spiritual peril. During the first couple of months of the pandemic people noted that the quiet, even in cities, was a gift.  Being able to hear should never be taken for granted.