Friday, March 15, 2019

Hello darkness my old friend

Travel enlightens you and awakens you to the differences there are among us. When you travel your friends will call you "lucky". But as you are becoming aware of the bigger world around you and as you share your vision, you may hope that your friends will move forward with their own dreams. But the reality is that:
Some will hear, but not listen. 
Some will listen, but not understand.
And some will understand, but not act.

Paul Simon wrote these words below and he and Art Garfunkel sang it to us in 1964, and today we still need to heed the words in this song.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams, I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"

And whispered in the sounds of silence

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