One day this past week , brattcat did a thought-provoking post about ice melting and the sound it makes. I made a comment on her post and one of her other readers followed up with me about what I had to say. She asked me if I would like to explain what my dad’s view on the matter was. So…here goes….
As a young child…very young mind you, my dad was always posing questions to me. I thought of them as riddles at first. One of his favorites was, “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear, does it still make a sound?” Well, not only did this question lead to many a stimulating debate, but I can trace my relationship with my father through the answers I gave.
In the beginning, I would say, “Yes, it still makes a sound.” But my dad would tell me that no it didn’t and he would leave me with that to ponder. So, of course, since my dad was the utmost authority on everything, I went around telling everyone that they were a little daft in the head if they thought that tree still made a sound with no one there. That worked for awhile, but eventually as I got older, I couldn’t defend my position. So back to dad I would go…why doesn’t it make a sound?
Dad then told me that it wasn’t a “sound” unless there was an ear there to “hear” it. Okay….I guess, but what about??? And on the debate would go because by now I’m older and starting to see a few chinks in my dad’s armor. And as all children do, I had begun to question that he was omnipotent.
Eventually we agreed to disagree. Dad still feels that it’s not a sound without an ear, but I feel the sound is there whether we “hear” it or not.
Now that I’m older (how much you just don’t need to know), I can see that the value of the question and discussion was about more than sound. It was about thinking outside of the box, about learning to defend and stand up for what I believed regardless, and it was about a father and daughter coming to understand and respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
So, Julie, I hope this answers your question and was what you were looking for. Thank you for asking. I’ll leave you with another favorite thing my dad used to say to me…
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride….
I’m sure you can imagine when I heard that one!
4 comments:
*grin* I suspect not long after you got your licence and wanted to borrow the car!
Thank you sooo much for making this post. It has given me much pleasure to read it. I will think my thoughts and respond later this evening. It has just gone Sunday 2pm here.
If a tree falls in the forest ...
If ice melts in a forest and no-one is there to hear it, does it still go drip drip drip? If a tree falls in a forest, and there is no-one there to hear does it still make a sound?
Take three people into the forest to witness the ice melting and the tree falling. Bring them out of the forest and separately debrief them. We end up with three totally different versions of what they saw and what they heard, that alone what significance it had for them.
A car is driving along a major road, and a car coming from a minor road smashes into it. Eight people witness it, two on each corner. Not only will we end up with four different views and therefore, versions of the one incident. But even between the two people on the same intersection the story will vary.
A married couple attend counselling to try to save their marriage, The counsellor talks with them separately. And then relates to the other the story of each. The experience of each bears no resemblance to the experience of the other, and yet they were both there.
Are we really asking does the universe revolve around the human race? If there is no witness, does the ice exist? If there is no witness, does the tree exist? If there was no witness, did the accident occur? And what then of the married couple?
All eight witnesses can agree that the accident did occur. They may even be able to point to physical evidence. We can say the ice melted because it was there last week and not this, and the rivers are overflowing. We can say the tree fell, because it is no longer there and the farmer has a full wood-shed.
Returning to our dripping and falling. What if a hearing-impaired person (moi) “heard” the ice melting and “heard” the tree falling. The ice melted and the tree fell, but no sound was heard.
Here endeth Philosophy 101.
All very beautifully said. Thank you so much for your thoughts and for the prompt. Come back again soon.
Oh, boy. This was a wonderful dialogue for a Sunday afternoon. I just love discussions like this. Now I must head back out to the garden to dead-head the tulips, making no sound.
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