CAROL FELIXSON, MEMBG Docent and Communications Coordinator
Sounds of Silence, the name and lyrics of a song first performed by Simon and Garfunkle in the 1960s, has long intrigued me. Does silence have a sound? In pondering this question, I realized that many sounds reside in what we conceive of as silence or in relatively quiet places that foster silence. This is true of the UCLA botanical garden. I think of it as sounds/silence. Just as there are layers of visual images, textures, and shades of colors to enjoy at the MEMBG, so too there are layers, subtleties, and nuances to its sounds/silence. While walking or sitting in the garden, one's awareness of this shifts profoundly, depending if one is silent or is speaking or singing aloud...whether alone or with others.
The delightful mixture of sounds/silence in the MEMBG can best be described as a symphony, with themes and variations on a theme. The sounds ebb and flow and can open the heart and uplift the soul. And occasionally, depending on the specific sound or one's disposition at the moment, they can be incredibly irritating...variations of a different kind. The movements of the symphony are ever changing in tempo, volume, and mood.
There are spaces between the sounds of rustling leaves, the chirping of birds and buzzing of bees, and sometimes the barely audible sounds of flight. These are punctuated by the rasp of squirrels racing along trees or down paths, chattering to themselves or each other as they scurry around. Hear the cracklings of small creatures as they run or hop in the leaf litter beneath bushes and trees. Boisterous giggles of children have a unique ring, as does the easily recognized teen greeting, "Hey dude, whaz up?"
With the tempo ranging from slow to fast, water rushes and flows over rock falls into the stream where fishes break the surface with a light splash. The notes of a wooden flute or acoustic guitar along with the percussive click of a camera shutter drift gently on the wind, accompanied by pen scratches on a drawing pad and the sharp sounds of an easel set up and taken down.
People hum as they walk, tap their feet on the wooden bridges and scuffle along the hardened paths-maybe in time to their internal melodies. Strollers and wheelchairs part the same paths as their wheels spin 'round. Couples and small groups chat with each other as they discover something new about the garden or themselves.
Listening closely, the simple and compound rhythms of staff and volunteer gardeners can be heard...busy at work, conversing, the engines whirring and tires of their carts whizzing along, their hoes scraping the ground and their clippers pruning trees and plants, their rakes scratching and poking through the gravel, gathering up leaves and small branches, their saws whining through trunks and branches.
And then there are the powerful, pulsing sounds of the helicopter blades and engines while landing and taking off at the medical center, buses grinding up Hilgard, sirens, airplanes overhead, and the neighboring construction site...vehicles roaring and workers yelling to each other above the noise...which in context is just a part of this musical masterpiece.
The next time you are in the garden, pay attention to the sounds/silence. How would you describe what YOU hear? Do you focus on the parts or the whole? How are you impacted? What name do you give to your symphony experience?
To share your experience of sounds/silence or any other part of your MEMBG visit, please e-mail me.