IF THE TRUTH BE KNOWN

All winter long, while I while away my time, writing, reading, cleaning or drawing, I absorb the serenity of a peaceful neighbor hood, and wonder: Where did everyone go?  Only the playing of the TV or music interrupts the quiet of the area: as the world seems so dead, settled under a soft blanket of snow! Then the spring burst forward and I open the windows or doors and realize, they didn't go anywhere! ‘They’ the noisemakers were just waiting outside my door.

As the doors are opened and the senses liberated from the solitude of a winter’s onslaught, a cacophony of noise invades my senses and the fun begins. Lawn mowers begin their long almost mournful drone, followed by the high pitch irritation of a leaf blower, which seems endless, ceasing only when the user stops for an aspirin. A small plane will slowly cross over the sky in a lazy buzz, while an owl in the distance hoots his advice in a steady stream as he has been doing for over 22 years. Someone’s small dog will bark out a protest for most of the day and of course, there are always the drivers that need to explode down the residential pathway to meet some deadline or fulfill the daredevil in them at the expense of life and limb of my neighbors.

To increase the high standards of noise level, various craftsmen descend upon the area and lend their talents with paving, brick laying, carpentry and the hammering of the street as they dig, build and maintain the various properties that call upon them to invoke their skills and noise upon my peace. Crowds of curiosity seekers will gather and witness a tree taken down or a cesspool pumped, and why? Well maybe the movie house isn’t opened yet or the price of a ticket too high.

In the distance a buzz saw sounds on repeated occasions and the distance highway traffic drones on leaving an echo when it is out of hearing range, Teens returning from school, like a gaggle of geese stroll to their homes and loudly proclaim to one another anything that makes them happy, as long as the whole neighborhood hears it. This is life, or at least my life, as I try to stay on a course of equanimity and sanity.

But all this comes with reward: the fact that tomorrow is another day!