Lorena's Epiphany

sounds betray

October 22, 2006 at 7:39 pm 3 comments

and no… this is not a remake of my thesis.

every so often, when my eyes are closed or i’m staring into space, a sound suddenly makes me lose sense of where i am. the sound of church bells in the distance on a sunday morning was one i would fondly wake up to in hazmieh after a late night out.

i wouldn’t quite call this post-traumatic stress disorder but a loud bang still makes me jump and all of a sudden i am taken back to the nights where i was sitting on edge with the israeli planes bombing dahyeh in the distance.

i don’t know what it is, but i am temporarily displaced whenever i hear a sound i associate to a particular lebanses sound/event. sonar association? i will not delve into this now. all i know is the second you’re away from the place, everything and anything can act as a trigger and all of a sudden you’re more aware of these sounds you took for granted.

hearing someone behind you on the train speaking in arabic is one of the best triggers. you smile to yourself. like hey, i understand this. you almost form a little secret connection with that person even though you probably may never speak or see them again. i smile everytime i hear arabic here in boston. it’s a small world after all and lebanese people always have their connections. i love how you can meet someone you haven’t seen in ages and find out they know this person who you know etc. it’s already happened like 4 times since i got here!

i will probably find a more interesting way to edit this blog at one point but i guess i felt the need to describe this connection to sounds. see how handy your thesis is? you can never forget where you’re from because even if you can’t see anything or remember it clearly in your head, at one point a little wave of a sound will cause a flood of unexpected memories.

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