I Hear...

I had been contemplating where I could absorb sounds without losing focus. Maybe a park, with its birds and people and traffic, or maybe a sidewalk on a busy street, or even a subway cart on the way home. But it’s terribly easy to get lost in the cacophony; distinctive conversations as people pass by or when a car beeps louder than the rest.

So on a Tuesday night, I headed over to Grand Central Terminal. Maybe my logic doesn’t make a lot of sense, but at 6PM on a weekday, the hustle and bustle of a city encapsulated in a huge space but still public and centralized in a way a simple NYC sidewalk isn’t. It was there that I wasn’t capable of hearing distinctive conversations. Instead, it was a hum of noise, a merge of dialogue. I could still recognize people talking to one another but the massive crowd and multitude of languages created a united background noise that echoed and lingered. It never ended but dipped high and low in volume.

Along with it was the sounds of walking: shuffling, sliding, and squeaking. The rolling of suitcases, the shutters of cameras, the train announcer alerting passengers with the mic creating a pinch-like undertone. Grand Central Terminal, a train destination and a tourist trap all at once.

It is also a popular place to ask for someone’s hand in marriage. At 6:30PM, a woman and man arrived by the central clock. He was fumbling for a small velvet box and went down on one knee. Suddenly, screams and whistles came from one of the balconies, a small group of people holding “Will you marry me?” signs. Then the flashes and shutter sounds from cameras became louder and a wave of clapping to congratulate the newly engaged couple.

But those sounds slowly died down and the hum of noises carried on.