A Friend of Mine, Ken Schmierer, a schoolmate from Ellendale ND moved back to the hometown a few years ago. His rehersal of that day he moved back is really good reading:
Yes, we are quiet. When I moved back a few years ago I became aware of this very quickly. The Allied Van driver, a recent polish immigrant now living in Chicago, stopped to rest for a minute between moving large objects and over flowing boxes into my house. He looked quizzically at me and said, "I have never been any where so quiet in my life! Good god, it is Saturday afternoon and this is Main Street. How can it be so quiet?"
His question was rhetorical and I stopped a minute to ponder the reality of what he said. It was deafening quiet. No squeak, no leaf blower, no horn, not even a lone dog barking in the distance. It was as if all sound had been erased from this part of the globe. No din of automobile on the Interstate, no jet airliners over head, no police sirens or fire whistles. Eerily quiet only to be appreciated by some one from afar.
Now... I never stop to even think about this small blessing. I have become accustomed to it. It is like most of our blessings - taken for granted. We allow our complaints and our dissatisfaction with life and others to rule. It is a choice that most of us make and the sad thing is we don't have to make it. We can appreciate all of our small blessing is we so choose.
1 comment:
Your post reminds me of an old story:
A californian, driving cross-country, found himself low and gas and stopped at a tiny gas station in CHRISTINE NORTH DAKOTA.
As the attendent pumped the fuel, the Californian looked around the itty-bitty city, the plains, the corn fields and the long, straight freeway.
He said, "..it really must be great to live in the country."
The gas station attendent said, "I wouldn't know. I grew up in Christine."
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