In the wheelhouse there are three separate marine radios. One that monitors the hailing and distress channel 16, the commercial “bridge to bridge” radio channel 13 and a separate radio that everyone working in the wind farm uses. Keeping in mind that this particular part of the country has a huge maritime industry, between the dozens of wind farm boats, teams working on towers, commercial fishing boats, ferries, cargo and cruise ships heading in and out of ports, the Coast Guard and hordes of personal watercraft, there can be a considerable amount of chatter coming through all three radios at once.
For a commercial boat, not listening is not an option. At any point someone may call me.
That being said, most of the radio traffic are simply things to be aware of, who is doing what and where. Other boats that are miles away talking to each other making passing arrangements. The Coast Guard making some announcement about something that’s nowhere near me. Some fisherman shit talking some other boat that just did something that pissed him off. Sometime it’s just static from a distant radio that’s just close enough to break the squelch. Sometimes it’s somebody who thinks it’s funny to sing or play a song. Sometimes it’s interesting, sometimes it’s irritating. Sometimes people just don’t seem to know how to shut up. Sometimes they have an annoying voice. And for whatever gods of radio traffic deem it necessary, everything can be quiet until they all start trying to talk at once.
It’s simply becomes unintelligible noise coming at me from all angles. It may as well be static. Too many inputs from too many places and nothing comes through the bottle neck.
I suspect others have an easier time filtering the noise out. My brain simply doesn’t work that way. I can’t listen to two conversations at once. If I’m trying to focus on something, the worst possible thing I can do is introduce additional noise. The moment I try to listen to music while reading, my brain locks up.
In the academic world of communication, noise can be defined as anything that interferes with the “message.” It could be a screaming baby, but it could also be anxiety about something unrelated, or literally anything else that creates a mental distraction.
It’s the dirty windshield.
The never ending push notifications.
The bad phone connection.
The distracted mind.
The client who thinks you should answer their 2 a.m. e-mails as soon as you wake up.
It’s more than noise, it’s chaos.
Sometimes it isn’t external. It’s the internal chatter that’s the problem.
All those thoughts talking over each other.
The inner chaos.
The thoughts that just won’t shut up.
Some things and some people simply occupy too much space in our heads.
And unlike all these radios that surround me, we do have the choice to ignore them.
The problem with all that chaos is that it doesn’t just affect our lives. Like a radio station that’s just out of range, it bleeds over into the song you’re trying to listen to. The life you’re trying to live. It bleeds over into the projects and relationships that you’re trying to tune in.
Tune it out or turn it off.
Find the quiet.
Then dance to the music of the song you actually want to hear.
