Listen

The sounds of the world around us are calling out.  Many are loud and hard to ignore, but there are those sounds that really are subtle and hard to understand.  Some sounds are just noises that might have very little meaning to us as they distort the other more important sounds in the background.  Listen and filter out the nuisance.

Some of the sounds are screaming out from miles away and can barely be heard because of the distance they have traveled to reach us.  One such sound is being amplified by the use of technology.  This is not the only one that matters, but it is one that is being amplified.  I applaud the people who want to see the sounds of suffering quieted in this world.  The sound of suffering that is taking place all around us is often muffled by laughter and joy, excitement and personal happiness, or the cries and bellowing of more personal suffering.

The sounds of the cries I mention are both distant and local.  Recently I have been paying more attention to the cries of the "invisible children".  I was made aware of this many years ago, but ignored the sounds, the cries, the screams of those who were raped or mutilated because they were coming from such a great distance away in Uganda that I could not hear them.  I could not hear them again until recently.  I found a video that made these sounds loud again.  What I hear is coming from a distance, but is as clear as if I was there in Africa.  The sounds of suffering is a direct result of rebellion that started sometime in the 1980's by Joseph Kony and the group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army.  I hear the sounds of suffering because the video that was posted on YouTube amplified the voices so I can hear them here in the US and others can hear them all over the world.  Other broadcasters and websites also helped to amplify and repeat these sounds as they help to repeat other sounds of suffering in the world and in the United States.

This is where my conscious exodus has taken me today.

I am concerned that local suffering, international suffering, and personal suffering are all interconnected and do not exist without each other.  We cannot ignore the sounds that are loudest to us because they are easily heard.  We cannot ignore the sounds of suffering that are muffled all because they are miles away from us.  We cannot ignore the sounds of suffering that are not able to be heard because they are on the other side of our planet and they matter.   I applaud and thank Jason Russell and his efforts to amplify the voices, but this opens up a whole new way of thinking about global politics (greed, murder, war, and the abuse of power) and the way we communicate the information, the sounds and the noises, that are out there.  There are some important things to think about and lessons to learn as indicated in an article from Wayne K. Spear.

We must listen to those sounds we can hear and help others hear those sounds they cannot hear.  Continue on your conscious exodus and "Fear None, Love All."