The first things I hear in the morning are birdsong and the sound of running water, and sometimes the wind in the trees. Which is only to be expected in the country. But it’s the same when I stay with my partner in the city, because the city doesn’t just belong to the people – it’s shared with the birds and the animals and the trees and the water. And there’s no traffic noise, no road drills, no sirens.
Getting rid of the roads has made a huge difference to our lives; they were such a blight on the landscape. Now in the city there are public courtyards with flowers, and squares with fountains, and streams that wind among the buildings, and wooded paths that wind beside the streams, and lots of little bridges. There are open spaces for the saucers, and plenty of jump stations. And the buildings are beautiful.
At night time in my partner’s home, we sleep with the window open and all you can hear is the sighing of the wind in the magnolia, and the tinkling of the stream, and maybe a morepork. And it’s delicious. You never hear any shouting or fighting. Occasionally there’s laughter, but it’s never drunken laughter. Occasionally there’s music, but it’s never loud or intrusive. Because people care about each other nowadays – even about people they don’t know and may never meet.
There are still people who love loud, pounding music, and there are places they can go to listen to it, and dance. Places that are safe and welcoming, with excellent sound insulation. Places where teenagers can go without risk. Places where we oldies can listen to the music of our youth and dance the dances of our youth!
And there are still roads, too. They’re off the beaten track (ha, ha) but easily accessible by saucer. So lovers of the motor car can whizz up and down winding, spectacular roads in an open-topped car, or take a racing car round the tracks. Of course, the motors don’t run on gas any more – they run on free energy.
Sometimes in the evenings there are concerts or festivals in the parks, and we often go along. And if we encounter one of the informal groups that get together to sing or play, we join in and harmonise. There’s lots of beautiful new music being written and performed these days – and not only by the young.
And the animals have started to sing, too. Of course, we don’t have indigenous animals here, but the animals we do have are really getting into it. Bryn has a beautiful voice – nothing like the caterwauling that you might expect. And when I visit my family in England, I wake in the morning to a dawn chorus of deer, badgers, and foxes, singing along with the birds.
© Sue J Davis 2015
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