Voyager

Let’s sit down and sketch.

Sometimes it’s a list, the things we put on paper to remind us of the things that need doing.

Sometimes, around mid-day, it’s the things we set on paper that we already found the time to get done.

Sometimes it’s a reflection on things we’d like to do, or ought to do, but know in reality we probably never will get done.

I’ve had times sitting down to write better than such lists, writing that approaches essay quality. One of the things I ought to put on my list of things to do is make these essays into audio. I mean, I should record them by reading into a machine and posting the clips for others to hear.

Then comes the question: if a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears, does the tree make a sound? Likewise, if a blog post that doubles as an essay gets posted at WordPress and nobody reads it, does it make a sound?

It does if I record it!

It makes the type of sound that is the potential click of a passerby in cyberspace – a taut sound, poised and ready to spring into action, to entertain from a traveler’s earbud as they move, clackety-clack, down the line through physical space.

Do you remember Voyager? Voyager has traveled now for almost fifty years, passing beyond the interstellar boundary. Whether or not any other life form has picked up on the sounds that it emits, the probe is making noise – in some cases described as “a garbled stream of nonsense.”

Right now, as I type upon my keyboard, my consciousness is giving voice to Voyager.

We are making noise.

I hope one might listen.

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