We live just off Court Street in a pretty quaint area of Mayberry (what the locals call Maryville, our East Tennessee hamlet). There’s a neat college (Maryville College) across the street that adds to the flavor of our ‘hood’. The college runs along Court Street and we are one house off Court.

One of the things I LOVE about living where I do, is that I can walk or bike almost everywhere I need to go. I wrote about this in a recent post. This morning while walking to church (yes I am still doing my X-365 plan), I heard the deafening and peace disturbing sound of a leaf blower. It’s that time of year where the gas powered annoyances are being used with vigor and I just HATE them. They are loud, pollutants, and are Sunday nap spoilers. To be fair, I own one so what I am about to write MAY sound hypocritical. However, my ox REALLY has to be in a ditch before I crank up one of my testosterone boosting gas-powered accoutrements on a Sunday. I try to use the servants (my kids), to sweep more so the blower blows less.

Until I was about 13, I lived in really small towns (Chattahoochee and Live Oak, FL). In Chattahoochee, the IGA was closed on Sunday, the Western Auto was closed, all the gas stations were closed. Downtown was barren except for the Riverview Bait and Tackle, the Draftwood Restaurant and Chattaburger, the only fast food for miles.

No-one worked on Sunday, few if any meetings were held, on Sunday, and no sports teams played, no school extracurricular activities, no shopping, no work, pretty much no nothing (unless you happened to work at the Chattahoochee mental hospital which invented 24/7/365). Sundays were days for worship, for family meals, for talking, for taking walks and for being together. Sundays were usually quiet. I long for that. We have become a society who has to have noise 24/7/ 365. We walk around with cell phone ear pieces that make us look like robots. We wear white Ipod ear buds dangling like earrings. We keep the TV on for “back ground” noise. It’s like we almost can’t handle quiet. I am “guilty” of some of the very annoyances I write about and sometimes sleep with the AC turned when it’s not needed, just to mask the night noises. I long for quiet (in my mind that always seems to be active with new ideas), in my two Walmart town, and on my street - Court Street. I’d love to see more people out walking at night and neighbors who sit out on porches. I’d love to hear about more families gathering to hear grandpa and grandma tell stories and for TV’s to be the lonely ones. I’d like to drive across the town where I live and not see someone yakking on a cell phone as they drive - endangering their lives as well as others whom they might pass along the way. I long, like my wife, for less electronic communication and more personal touches. We’ve taken convenience technology too far with e-birthday cards, e-invites, e-alerts, e-newsletter, e-Christmas Cards, e-shopping … I say e-nough!

Maybe this holiday season would be a good time to start with more silence. I read where a NJ town impacted by 9/11 cancelled all meetings, all sporting events, and pretty much all activities on one night of the week to get families connected - it saved marriages, built relationships, and probably added to the population! Maybe a Silence on Sunday campaign could be implemented in small towns across the USA. Maybe someone should write a Christmas carol about Silence during the night time. Maybe someone should just decree “Silence in (and on) the Court (Street).”

Silent night, holy night, all is calm. All is bright.