Last week I wrote about how I loved to hear the beautiful sound of snow falling, that the silence of the snow seemed to demand that it should be ‘heard.’

This past week I saw the powerful movie Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. It made me think a lot about people who suffer. It’s a story about an eleven-year-old child, Oskar Schell, whose heart is broken when his father dies in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Oskar is an intellectually curious, very sensitive child, who likely has Asperger syndrome. One day, while looking around in his father’s closet, Oskar finds a key in a small envelope with the name Black written on it. He also finds a clipping with the words ‘never stop looking’ circled. He becomes obsessed with finding someone with the last name Black as well as the lock that the key fits. He believes it will help keep him close to his dad, so he decides to visit each of the 472 Blacks listed in the boroughs of New York. He calculates that this will take three years if he devotes weekends to it. He promises himself that he will never quit looking.

As a child with Asperger Syndrome, Oskar has to deal with extreme sensitivities to everyday sounds, sights, and touch. He seems to hear sounds others do not. He can be easily distracted by noises others can filter out. Some sounds seem actually painful for him such as children’s screams, subway sounds, airplanes, police sirens. It is difficult for him to go to noisy places.

Fear of loud noises can also be a problem for animals. I recently heard a story about Ginger, a dog who had been placed in a kennel over the 4^th of July holiday. The morning after the holiday, the manager of the shelter took a look through the kennels. In Ginger’s kennel, there was blood everywhere – on the dog’s coat and bloody streaks on the walls. Even her paws were dark red. After an examination, the cause of Ginger’s wounds was apparent – she had tried to dig her way out of the concrete kennel to escape the loud noises. She had scraped her nails until they bled. The night before, the town fireworks display had taken place at a nearby park. Ginger was so terrified by the loud noises that she frantically tried to escape.

For people and animals, experiencing the shock of extremely loud noise can be traumatic and painful; deeply rooted fears may remain. They may even panic at the noise of a car backfiring or of distant thunder. How important it is for us to be understanding and sensitive to the fears and challenges facing people and animals. We are lucky if we can tolerate extremely loud noises. May we learn to be thoughtful and caring to those who suffer from distress and loud noises.

Beloved God of Silence and of Noise, we thank you for the ability to hear and see and feel. Help us to learn to be more understanding and caring for those who may suffer from a sensitivity to loud noises. May we be kind and compassionate to those who are suffering and in pain in this world. Amen.

Joy Carol
www.joycarol.com