Need a miracle? - 'listen' to this...

“Reason is the slow and tortuous method by

which those who do not know

the truth discover it.”

- B. Pascal: Pensées

The coach yells, “Throw the ball!” – the teacher says, “If you divide the number ten by two, the answer is five.” – The lover whispers, “You mean more to me than life itself…” Each of these messages carries an idea, meaning and most surprising of all, feeling.

Surprising you say?? 

The system – in general terms…

The grunting sounds to the untrained ear are just that – nondescript noises.  Sometimes they come with greater or lesser intensity…. sometimes at faster – sometimes slower rates.  You’ve seen the cartoon of two people chatting in the presence of a cat.  One gal says to the other, “How do you think the elections will go this year?” The cat hears, “Blah, blah, blah, blah….”

The vibrations originate in the throat, are pushed out by the lungs with the expiration of air, and amplified by an echo chamber – the mouth.  Whatever the characteristic of the sounds; whatever the rhythm or musicality, the noises have meaning…when and only when, a receptor has been trained to receive them.

Emerging sounds come through a monophonic megaphone, and are best received when the noisemaker is pointed in the direction of the intended receiver.  The receivers, in this case, are small stereophonic microphones attached to the sides of our heads with cartilaginous sound directors channeling the clatter into the ear canals like whitewater tumbling down the Colorado River.  If the noise is not directed precisely at the receivers, these ‘sound catchers’ work in just enough asynchrony to help discern the direction from which the sound is coming.

How it works – in general terms…

The unseen noises, carried by pulses of vibrating air to be deciphered, work a little like this.  Energetic invisible grunts hit the eardrum like fingers tapping the surface of a bongo drum.  The intensity and specific rhythm of that thump cause three little bones on the other side of the ‘drum head’ to vibrate.  The last of these oscillating bones strikes a little snail shaped organ filled with fluid and little hairs – each tuned to a specific frequency from 20 cycles to 20,000 cycles per second. 

The vibrating fluid creates small waves that stimulate the little hairs, leading to tiny micro-electric currents that travel through organic wiring (neurons) to the decoding portion of the brain and VOILA the sound moving through space – no wires folks – has created an idea in our minds!!

Take a moment – this is very cool…

No one reading this needs to understand the system to use it, although it took centuries of study to comprehend it.  In fact it is such a routine part of life, we give it no thought at all…and yet, not only is it arguably the most important mechanical and physiological system for the communal human experience…it is even more fundamentally amazing than that.

Speaking and hearing communicate ideas, but more remarkably, this system transmits feelings: the passion of joy and sorrow, the expression of enthusiasm or caution, the transmission of love and faith…the intangibles.  

On balance, within very broad parameters, we create these noises, and in the most incredible of ways, others receive and make some sort of sense out of them…at least enough sense for collective communication and survival.

Before the advent of all of the technology by which we live our lives, this system of communication, in its most basic form, was the foundation for the rise and fall of empires…peace or war amongst peoples…the passing along of tradition…the ways in which we have found common ground…one of the most fundamentally profound reasons we survive. If the system were just understandable bursts of noise that transmitted ideas, it would be impressive, BUT this…this…It is miraculous!

It is easy to take for granted the normal day-to-day automatic systems by which we live our lives.  They permit us to look for things out of the ordinary…new ideas…new movies…new books…in general, simply news.

A small point to be made…

The origin of speech, transmission of thought or understanding seemingly indistinct noises, is not the focus here.  The point is that so much of what comes with the life we have been given is awesome and honestly, in moments of reflection, overwhelming! 

Our breath, the beating of our heart, the muscular engines of movement, the internal factories that process the energy we consume, and yes the way we communicate…all of it is stunning in the way it runs quietly in the background while we get on with our lives.  Unless something gets out of place, unless we suffer from some disruption of the system…some dis-ease…we simply ignore it.

The next time you hear the coach yell, a teacher teach or the love of your life whispers something intimate in your ear, remember what an amazing and unsolicited communication system we have been given…

Do you need a miracle in your life today?  Perk up your ears…you are living in one!

- ted