Background Noise

Late at night, while trying to fall asleep, or early in the morning, before I get out of bed, and occasionally just while lying on the couch in the living room when I have a lot on my mind, I idly listen to the street sounds: cars driving by, mostly, rain, sometimes, or thunder, a barking dog, shrieking woman, booming car stereo, a jackhammer, garbage trucks. Most of the time, however, I don't even notice it, and I always find myself surprised when people--staying in our apartment or just musing from another city--ask me how I can stand the street noise in New York.

Tonight, one of those occasional nights on the couch where I was just thinking and listening, I found myself realizing that as a child, at least for the summer months, I fell asleep each night to louder sounds: the crickets in the swamp by the pond in my parents' yard. The first time my best friend from college came to stay with us in the summertime she sat straight up in bed. "Are you kidding me?" she asked. "What the hell is that?" 

"What do you mean?" I asked, truly not knowing. I am thinking that maybe I filter out a lot of background noise, focus too much sometimes on the internal chords, a useful skill, perhaps, for sleeping, but a potentially problematic one in life. I have always taken pride in the fact that I can sleep anywhere, in any setting, find myself annoyed when others are fussy about their mattress or white noise machine or pillow or curtains or shades but especially sound. I think I am going to try listening harder.