Sitting in a semi-dark room…the lights off.

Some light is shadowing in from another room.

Ivory and tan speckled linoleum tiles cover the floor.

Looking up I see tracks where curtains hang at attention, waiting to become a force field of privacy.

I notice opaque bumpy plastic above… it reminds me of … The Sound of Silence.

The haunting words that always penetrate my consciousness run through my mind…

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

Fools, said I, you do not know

Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you

But my words, like silent raindrops fell

And echoed in the wells of silence

~Paul Simon

as I sit at the foot of his bed watching over him.

I reflect…

I have fought hard to reach this destination.

Every day I listen for his sounds of silence.

I hear them.

I dare disturb the sound of silence, and make others hear his words.

Our words, like silent raindrops, will not fall into wells of silence.

THIS is what I thought of, as I watched over a boy today in the nurse’s office, who can not communicate with words. A boy I have invested my heart into so that I can “hear” his voice through his facial expressions, sounds, temperament, and body language. A boy who deserves to be heard, understood, and taken care of.

These lyrics were written by Paul Simon, as he sat in a dark bathroom. Whenever I see fluorescent lights it brings me to this story of him looking up at the bathroom light and penning the lyrics about the “neon god they made”.

The silence in our world today IS growing like a cancer, as we bow our heads to the electronic gods we’ve made.