A Constant Reminder

Silence is golden and I rarely appreciate it unless it is absent. For two straight days an alarm echoed through the halls of our administration center. A perpetual beeping for nearly 48 hours... Every nine seconds.

Initially, I was merely irritated by this interruption to the silence that typically permeates the building where my office resides. One of the things I enjoy most about the location of my office is the fact that I can depend on the crypt like silence to provide a wonderful atmosphere of quiet. So, when the electronic interloper decided to voice its presence every nine seconds, I was perturbed but unshaken.

Eventually, my mild displeasure evolved into annoyance followed by rage and then, finally... Sweet indifference. If I couldn't beat the electronic buzzing alarm, then I would join it. I began devising musical accompaniment and even tried my hand at constructing a few lyrics around it. I developed some games based on timing and nine second intervals of activity. I even stopped by our director's office to inform him that the beeps were coming every 9 seconds. I was proud of my astute observation. Our lives were being interrupted on a consistent basis but we had adapted and were functioning.

Then I had a thought... I was curious as to what else happens every nine seconds so I did some research. Every nine seconds a woman is a victim of domestic violence. Every nine seconds a child drops out of school. Every nine seconds a person dies of AIDS. The alarm suddenly enveloped a more sinister meaning. To hear a statistic is one thing, but to be be constantly reminded of its reality is another. I couldn't escape the fact that every time that alarm announced itself, another woman was hit or a kid quit school or someone died.

I am a master of compartmentalization but the incessant beeping would not let me push this information to the back of my mind. Nearly 6 and a half times a minute that alarm sounded: almost 400 times an hour: almost 9600 times over the course of a day... Reality versus the theoretical. If you know some one who is a victim of domestic abuse, then do whatever it takes to help them escape their situation. If you know a kid who is struggling in school, then what will you do to make sure he or she doesn't become just another blip on the radar? AIDS has claimed countless lives over the decades and, in spite of progress, it still is a devastating disease.

When I now hear the alarm go off, it means a little more.