The sound environment we create, much of which is traceable to our individual accumulation of wealth, invites reflection - not only spiritual but academic - on what constitutes human flourishing.
Lucy Winkett, Our sound is our wound.

The sounds we hear

Winkett belives that the sound environment that we live in, and the one that plays in our heads, have spiritual implications. At one point she refers to research on the changing singing (closely related to mating) habits of birds. 'What seems to be happening is that (urban) birds are singing more loudly at a higher shrill pitch, with less variation and in the dark in order to make themselves heard over the human noise of low-pitched monotonous, relentless sound.'

Look at the picture for a few minutes. What comes to you as you consider contrast, interplay, foreground noises and background noises, the sounds that surround you as you read this? What is the impact on me, physically, emotionally? Where is the voice of God? If I stop and listen and consider, like Moses, what do I hear?

What constitutes human flourishing? What sounds, policies, behaviours that I emit and receive nourish myself and others? As Scotland votes on the independence issue today I ponder what nurtures and constitutes human flourishing?

Quotes from Lucy Winkett, Canon Precentor of St. Paul's Cathedral