Dear Neighbor,

I like wind chimes, wind chimes are nice. As the kidlet says, they sound like bells. However, the wind does not discriminate between night and day. The wind does not care that it's three in the morning or that you're trying to concentrate on something else. No, the wind just comes along and plays those things at any damn time it wants, and without much in the way of rhythm. Do you really want the wind playing your tunes for you? Just curious.

Your new neighbor,
nina

Comments

[Cowtown Pattie]

I have two hanging in my trees at the moment. My favorite are the ones made of bamboo. Make such "island" noise when they dance together in the breeze. Guess I am used to them, because I don't hear them as much as I used to. When I get a new chime, I hear it for a while, then it too becomes part of my everyday world and miraculously mutes like its predecessors.

[ellie]

A timely post for me as I recently bought some lovely wind chimes and hung them in the front yard....for half a day. I realized I'd be subjecting my neighbor (who is also my tenant) to the sound and though pretty, could possibly get on one's nerves after a while. I moved them to the furthest corner of the back yard. After reading this I'm thinking I should just get rid of them as he can probably hear them from his bedroom now.

[Chandrasutra]

I enjoyed this short, but relevant, post a lot because it speaks to the problems of day to day democracy. John Stuart Mill, in his seminal "On Liberty", asks at point where one person's freedom become another's oppression? This is a question that we don't ask often enough. Too often, we think of our own pleasure without thinking of the consequences to others (or the planet). The same thinking that allows us to go out and knowingly buy clothing that was made in a sweatshop, or drink unfairly traded designer coffee allows for petit cruelties like inflicting your music, dog, SUV, windchimes, etc on others around you.