Concert of the Deaf

I like sounds, especially those that aren't officially music but happen spontaneously, in unexpected places, with an air of a message or a sign. For example, I like when I open the top drawer in the kitchen and Martin's egg-shaped metal teaholder makes a tinny, clear "ting" sound as it hits the inside wall of the drawer. Sometimes I think I'm constantly on the lookout for such little sounds, with a life of their own.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the library and took my usual route: I went straight from Berri-Uqam metro up the escalator leading to the entrance of the library. The escalator is narrow, and it is not easy to pass people by, so you normally just stand behind others and wait for the top of the stairs to emerge. Ahead on the step above me is the back of a girl in a long coat and those currently popular furry flat boots. She shifts her position lightly and instantaneously a funny, half-brushing half-grinding sound begins. I look around trying to locate the source, and finally my glance zooms in on her right boot -- a leather strip on the side is brushing against the thick rubber band on the side of the escalator, making a strange "music." She even begins to keep a rhythm by tapping her foot, which changes the "melody"and gives it a new pattern. I smile and nod in approval of her gesture, and look up to catch her eye, which must be one of those lively, playful eyes, no doubt. All I manage to see in her half-profile, however, is an ear with an earphone and a cord trailing into the depths of her coat. She can't hear any of the quirky but cool music she's making, which somehow strangely fits in with the glass cubicles and criss-crossing levels of the library. (In fact, could she hear it, she'd probably discontinue it right away...)

I don't think I would ever want to live in a world without music, but I never liked the idea of filling my ears with the music from the earphones as I'm walking outside. I don't like it because I find it bizarre that people would want to be so engulfed and isolated in the world of their own head that they would be totally deaf to anything else murmuring, squeaking, tapping, singing, humming, whistling, screaming, thudding, throbbing, clinking, swishing, pounding, rapping, howling, whimpering, roaring, hissing, or simply "sounding" in the wide world around them. What a waste to miss it. What a pity not to notice how you too can draw staff lines just by walking, or taking an escalator.