AustLit

Hugh Mackay takes as his essay's launching point a theatre production he attended where he was aurally assaulted by the scraping of 'a beer can across the strings of an electic guitar'. Reflecting on the constant need in modern life for stimulation, he concludes by saying: 'The teachers - or parents, preachers or drama directors - who think it is smart to compete with the world of high-speed messaging are missing the point, as are those who think constant stimulation is an acceptable norm. Unless we practice - and teach our children - the art of being still in a quiet space, attending to the subtleties of silence, we will be condemning ourselves to a world of noise that might become as meaningless as the sound of that shrieking guitar.'