about that old question . . .
I must have been as small as 8 years old, when I heard that old, philosophical question,
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear is there a sound?
Even then, even now, from the first time I heard that question, my response wasn’t what it was meant to be. Rather than imagining the sound, I was immediately in the forest with that falling tree.
I watched the tree fall. I heard the sound. I thought of myself falling down. I was 8 years old. I wondered.
If I saw a tree fall in a forest and no one was around for me to tell, did it really happen?
That’s what I thought. . . . most of my life.
Most of my life, some things weren’t real unless I had someone to tell. In some way, describing an event was like making sure someone heard the sound of the falling tree. It was proof I existed. It meant I wasn’t alone.
It took precious time to retell my life.
I still do it now, but not to prove I am real. Now I’m there the first time around instead.
Now when a tree falls in the forest, I’m singing about the sound of being alive.
Don’t know if you’ve ever read “Peace Is Every Step,” by Thich Nhat Hanh, but your post reminded me of it. The book is one of my favorites, all about living in the moment. Truly, all we have is the present.
Hi Brad!
I’ve read some of his and some of many of the folks who have been influenced by him. His thoughts and mine follow the same path.
Funny you should mention this one, as I had a reaction to it as a child, too.
I remember thinking, “Well, of course it makes a sound. It just doesn’t make any noise.”
I’m 42 years old, and I stick by the answer of my youth. (Sound waves are produced, but they don’t obscure any meaningful signal.)
I guess I was meant to be an engineer, not a poet.
Have a great day, Liz, and may you continue to see the forest and the trees.
Hi JF,
I think your response shows that you were meant to be poet, poetry is structure and expression all based in math like music. How much closer could you get than this example? 🙂
You have a wonderful day as well. 🙂
Liz,
You always know just what to say to make my day. Thank you!
All the best,
CLKL/JF
Wow!
That’s great news to me. 🙂
Liz [I say as I adjust my pocket protector],
Sound is the effect of waves on the ear of a hearer. No hearer, no sound; just rapid air movement.
[switches to orange robe]
In reality, sound only happens in the mind of the hearer. Your blog posts have a sound in my mind: your voice saying them. And no air moved in making that happen!
Fun, huh?
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mr. MIT!!
um, er, Mike, magic has nothing to do with science . . . end of story. 🙂
What I mean is . . . um er . . . happily ever after.
Of course I can hear, every time a bell rings and angel goes to heaven. 🙂
Liz,
Magic may have nothing to do with science, but I’m an engineer by training, and wasn’t it Arthur C. Clark who said:
Mike
And yes, happily ever after, which always starts right this instant! 😉
Ugh! [she says clenching her stomach dramatically as if shot] You got me!
I’ve been magicked-out! Go figure! Just when I thought it was safe to come out of the trees.
Well, there’s a first time for everything… LOL
Have a lovely day!
Mike
Hey, Mike!
That was fun! You have a lovely day as well! 🙂
hello everyone 🙂
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear is there a sound?”
Well we know that sound cannot travel in vacuum, so for any sound/noise/voice to be heard, it has to have a medium.
If you’re the only one to hear it, then probably there’s no sound, because there’s no medium that connects. (… no, I’m sober.)
On a more metaphysical level, I really believe neither the tree nor the sound exist in an empty forest, because it’s not acknowledged. For that matter, the whole universe does not exist (for me) if I don’t acknowledge its existence.
It’s like Brad’s comment above (#1) about living in the moment. Each moment wipes out a world and creates a new one.
It’s also a bit like TM, where you learn how you can treat your mind and body as separate entities. You can then simply refuse the physical pain while sitting in a dentist’s chair. It just doesn’t exist.
Hi Zakman!
I like the idea that each moment rewrites the one that went before. That makes an infinite number of rebirths. What a joyful idea!
Hi Liz!
So good to hear from you!
Have a great day 🙂
🙂
Not sure who said it, but I prefer the corollary:
Hi JF!
I like that one too! 🙂
I find it interesting that no one has really commented on what that answer meant for you growing up.
I had a psychologist tell me once that he counseled a woman who had her house set up in such a way that everywhere you stood in the house you could see yourself in a mirror. That’s how she knew she was real – if she could see her reflection.
What in your life changed this outlook, Liz (if you don’t mind getting personal)? It makes me happy that the way you think of yourself has changed!
Hey Lauren Marie!
I’ve been paying attention to this trait in myself since I was in high school, but I never put in context before. When I learned to stop to listen to myself, especially when I started writing for myself every day, back in the nineties. Now I take time to reflect on what’s happened in my life. I validate myself. YEA!
Thanks for asking. 🙂
What’s your version?
I must admit I never really comprehended the point of the original question. Trees fall over all the times and as long as no one hears, sees or get hit by them I am fine with that. If we were to care about everything that happens we would all end up in confinement I think 🙂
Now, the question if something is real if it isn’t shared is far more interesting. It has nothing to do with the tree or whatever else event we are talking about, but far more interesting nonetheless.
I do however doubt that it wasn’t real if not told. I believe it is much more so that telling about it adds to it and makes it more real so to speak. You experience it and then you experience it again as you communicate it.
Since you have had time to reflect about it and can chose what to tell and how to tell it am I not surprised that you believe the real reality lies in the sharing of your experience.
It has surely also to do with our senses and how we are wired when it comes to those, but that is for someone else to explain. I could only imagine that when seeing something, hearing something and smelling something are all instant event that can be recalled and reinforced first mentally and then vocally.
You wrote some days ago about being able to hear people typing in their comments and as I type this I on the other hand can just hear you telling the story of the falling tree with all the details about how you saw it, heard it and even smelled the freshly splintered wood.
I am sure your counterpart was equally convinced about the reality of the event afterwards. You thus not only experienced by telling about it. You make others experience it as well.
Hence my question: If experience comes into existence by being communicated would this post then have been real if I hadn’t read it?
Wow! Jan,
You said so much here. I read it over several times and so enjoyed what you are saying. Thank you.
Especially this You experience it and then you experience it again as you communicate it. stood out to me. That so describes the situation and the cycling down of recreating what gets passed on now.
I love the question that you ended with. If may answer . . . it was so real for me. 🙂
I want to answer your question, but now I’m not sure I understood the message of this post. Did you feel like your life wasn’t real unless you were telling someone about it? That’s what I took it to mean. Did I misinterpret?
If I did not, then my answer to your question would be that I never felt the need to make myself real, but to make myself valuable. It seems in this world (and especially growing up with a father who was married/re-married about 5 times) that people are easily replaced. I don’t want to be easily replaced. I want to be important to the people I interact with, and especially to those who are important to me.
Hi Lauren Marie!
Actually, you took it right. That’s how I seemed to believe. Things felt more real after I told someone about them.
I definitely think you are not someone who can be replaced! I read your comments. I hear your thoughts. You have a heart that the world needs. It works with a mind that sees.
I want you to important to yourself, as important as you are to us! 🙂
You are so sweet and encouraging Liz! Thank you for your warm thoughts 🙂
Hi Lauren Marie!
Telling the truth isn’t sweet. It’s truthful. 🙂 [big grin}