I was recently reminded of a familiar, age-old question: if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
The point of this question is to divide people into two different groups of thinkers. The first group of people will tell you that no sound is made. These individuals believe that sound is dependent upon someone’s ability to hear soundwaves. For them, the perception of the wave is necessary for the sound’s existence. The second group will believe that the tree still makes a noise. These people recognize that certain concepts exist outside of our ability to perceive them. Thus, they qualify the soundwaves as sound regardless of their ability to be heard.
Personally, I am the second type of thinker. But why does all this matter?
These two concepts can be applied to many different abstract ideas. The concepts of sound, time, and length are just a few examples. Many people believe time to be a human construct, meaning that they are the first type of thinker. I would argue that time exists outside of anyone’s ability to perceive it. The problem is that we have defined time into seemingly arbitrary increments such as hours or years. While these lengths vary based on where you are in the universe or, some argue, what species is doing the perceiving, the existence of time through a continuum of events, changing or unchanging, is an independent concept. Time’s dependency arises when we try to define it or label it using our singular perspective.
Length works in a similar way. An object will have a length regardless of if someone is there to measure it. A cup of water will take time to evaporate whether or not someone is there to watch it. And a tree will make a noise if it falls even if no one is there to hear it.
These ways of thought can also be applied to emotion.
The problem arises when people don’t think an emotion exists if they aren’t feeling it. They don’t empathize with the issues of others because they aren’t experiencing the emotions. If you’re not there to hear the tree, does it matter if it’s falling or not? The fact of the matter is that it should. Even if it’s not your struggle, it’s important to be there for other people. Otherwise, this can lead to people feeling alone in their experiences. They can feel like they aren’t making any noise because no one is there to hear them.
It’s important to remember that your perspective doesn’t define the world around you. There are many people – many trees – that are falling and trying to make noise. Be there to hear the sounds your loves ones make.
The age-old question may be about a tree, but the true question we are asking ourselves is “if I fall and make a sound, will anyone be there to hear me?”.