Comment by Caroline:

I have noticed in my own home that when we turn off the tv, radio and other distraction everyone seems to mellow out.

Comment by Nick Wright:

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. The absolute cacophony of sound that surrounds us everywhere we go.

Our fridge and freezer stay in a room away from the rest of the house, I can’t stand to listen to them. We don’t own a TV, my wife listens to the radio occasionally but usually the only time we have anything “playing” it is a preaching tape in our little tape player.

I can’t hardly stand to go to most stores anymore. Which makes the fact that I currently work at a national chain retail drugstore very difficult.

The manager at the store I work at plays the music so loud that I literally often cannot understand what the customers right in front of me are saying!

I asked him one day if we could turn the music down. His answer was, “When the volume is a little too loud, people buy more cards.” All I could do was stand there open-mouthed.

Comment by Bethany:

I always long for silence and have moved out to the country to get a little more of it! There are still tractors and combines a few distant dogs barking, but I don’t mind it nearly so much as the city noises!

In contrast, we lived overseas for a few years in a country where the culture insisted that the louder the activity the more fun. So every store in the mall was trying to blast the others out of the water. And when your neighbors had a party, it had to be cranked. Frequently, we would go out to dinner and not be able to hear the conversation at our own table because the music was too loud to even hear yourself think. It was not my definition of fun! Talk about culture shock! It is so good to be home. It is still noisy, but nothing in comparison.

Comment by Rose:

This really hit home for me. I absolutely crave peace and quiet. I worked for 9 years at a nuke plant. everything beep, buzzed, honked or made some other awful noise. I wore earplugs most of the time, but I really think the noise did something to my nervous system. I even have a hard time listening to music, which I have always loved, for very long at a time now. When the heat or air come on in the house it bothers me. When I am outside in my yard far away from artificial sound I am content. Otherwise I feel bothered and irritated in a way I cannot explain.

Comment by Shoshana:

Something I have always found interesting about the 18th Century… I live near Niagara Falls. In the 18th century, you could hear the falls from Fort Niagara which is about 20 miles from the fort. The earth was that quiet then. I have been to the fort many times and I can almost feel the falls, I wish I could hear them.

Comment by J.D:

I always pray for silence and my surroundings. Gosh much needed peace and quiet. Conversations and people yelling, loud tv’s to the maximum. People turning it up louder and louder. Hopefully in another century we can also not have worry about headphones and just listen to ourselves through silence. Hope it is soon!