Your Inside Voice

"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within." - Mohandas Gandhi

Listen to Your Inside Voice - Janiece Senn
Digital Vintage Remix

"Please use your inside voice." We tell our children that all the time, don't we? My grandson comes home from school each day with a temporary malfunction on his volume control. The effort required for him to capture the attention of friends on the playground, the teacher in the classroom, or the other kids on the bus on his ride home, must be enormous. He needs a reminder every day to relax and take it down a notch, as well as the assurance that we will hear him, even if he speaks quietly to us.

We are bombarded with so much noise today. Up-to-the-second, we're-in-touch-so-you-be-in-touch, fair-and-balanced, the-world-at-your-fingertips news feeds operate 24/7, giving us an unending stream of world politics, weather disasters, and entertainment.

The outside voices have become tyrants in our lives, dictating what we hear, see, read, and, in some cases, think. We have come to glorify those outside voices that bully us with their overpowering shouts for our attention. Like other bullies, these will abuse us, manipulate us, and demean us if we let them.

Please use your inside voice.

Relax. Take it down a notch. Listen to the still small voice within.
 
It is only by listening to that voice that you will receive wisdom, and not just information.

In understanding that voice you will gain enlightenment, not just knowledge.

In heeding that voice will you find purpose, and not just activity.

I admire people who are unafraid to listen to their inside voices. One of these people is my friend, Janiece, who created the beautiful image you see above. A fiercely funny woman, a survivor and a rebel, Janiece is first and foremost an artist who listens to her inside voice.

Whether piecing together shards of glass for an intricate mosaic,

or layering digital images one on another, Janiece taps into the wisdom of that still small voice who speaks to each of us.

Today, I wish for you the chance to hear your inside voice.

When I considered the choice of music today, the selection itself was quite difficult, but the artist was a no-brainer. It had to be Glenn Gould.

Glenn Gould was not afraid to listen to that voice within him. Though he was considered to be eccentric, demanding, and unconventional, he continued to listen to that voice. Indeed, upon watching him play, some even thought him to have had some form of autism, but one need only to see a few of the many interviews with him to know that that was not the case at all.

Gould simply insisted on respecting that tyrant within him, the "inside voice" that took him to musical heights no one else has yet to reach.

Although Gould was most well known for his interpretations of Bach, I chose this Beethoven piece, the Sonata Op. 31 N.2 - I Largo,Allegro, sometimes called the "Tempest Sonata."

I often feel like an intruder when I watch Glenn Gould play. Lost in his music, he definitely never played for the benefit of the outside audience. His audience was surely the tyrant he played for. Enjoy!