Appreciate the Silence

I was in Montpellier recently and noticed this sign:

It means:

Appreciate the Silence

With a little less noise, we listen better.

I find this to be a noble effort on the city’s part, even though it will likely have little to no effect on decreasing the noise level.  Montpellier is a city that can be rather loud, relatively speaking.  It’s not New York or even Chicago, but I understand its reasoning behinds such a campaign.  Montpellier has thousands of students, constant traffic, and the city is also trying to fight a growing trend – smoking outside bars.  Indoors, smoking is no longer permitted, so many patrons move curbside, and along with them, comes the noise.  Sometimes, there are more people outside than inside and once quiet neighborhoods have become louder than Wrigleyville after a Cub’s home game. 

I do recall my life back in Chicago, and I did (gasp!) live in Wrigleyville once.  I learned to block out the sound of the bars’ closing time or the 4 am rounds of the garbage trucks.  I got used to it, just as now I’m used to the quiet.  At night, I’m woken up by the sound of wind or rain.  The worse is a fox howling, which sounds like an old asthmatic dog with laryngitis, but I prefer that over the sounds of neighboring bars and PBR induced monologs about philosophy as patrons are shuffled towards the door.

So, I like the idea of instilling into society a conscience of neighbors, the sounds produced, and the effects all that noise has on society and how it reacts.  If Chicago, New York, or Montpellier could be silent for just a few minutes, there would be a greater appreciation for what is shared and why.

As Mark Twain once said, “Noise proves nothing” so why not try proving something by just being quiet?  I think Montpellier is right in its idea to try to make the city a little quieter.  We do hear each other better when we learn to listen and appreciate when nothing is said at all.