大象传媒

Good morning.聽 If like me you live in the city, I wonder if you鈥檝e noticed how the birds often sing in the middle of the night these days? What鈥檚 happening apparently is that birds in cities are having to start far earlier and sing about 14 decibels louder than their country cousins.聽 It鈥檚 as if they鈥檙e having to shout to make themselves heard - and they鈥檙e ending up stressed and exhausted. Birdsong specialist Dr Sue Anne Zollinger, of the University of St Andrews says that 鈥淭he difference between urban and rural birdsong is becoming so great that the two groups could now be unable to communicate with each other, leading to inbreeding and a weakened gene pool.鈥�

I鈥檝e lived in the city all my adult life. In the city you sometimes feel like no-one can hear you sing.聽 The people in the next street may be complete strangers 鈥� singing a very different song.聽 There鈥檚 a real risk that we end up in tiny groups so diverse that we can鈥檛 understand each other.聽 Then we get frightened of each other, and the whole species suffers.聽

Cities push us together 鈥� but they also pull us apart.聽 Too much noise, too much stress, too much busy-ness makes us strangers. We all need to find some quiet space to sing; to hear what our neighbours are trying to say to us; to listen to God.聽 In the words of John Greenleaf Whitier鈥檚 hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind we ask

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Amen