Frequencies

 I prefer to sit near Indonesians at the coffee cafe. Well, let me tweak that just a bit - - I prefer to sit near no one at all, but given no choice, I will choose Indonesians over English speaking foreigners every time. This has nothing to do with some kind of preferential prejudice for one nationality over another. Rather, it is about sound. It is about frequency. It is about white noise. 

Maybe you are familiar with these frequencies that you can look up on YouTube. Probably you are. I am always several years behind everyone else. Anyway, a frequency is a constant tone which when listened to while resting or even while asleep confers amazing properties. You might choose 423 hz, for instance, or 528, or 888. These specific tones, it is said, resonate deep down in the soul of the person with nothing better to do and are effective for healing illness or building self-confidence or even repairing DNA. That last is called the miracle frequency, I believe, which in and of itself is vague enough to cover just about everything. 

Combined with the frequency, whatever three digit number it happens to be, you can choose selections wherein natural sounds will mask the tone itself (which, honestly, is rather annoying on its own and not something I could ever bear to listen to). One may choose river sounds, for example, or rain and thunder sounds. The magical tone is there, but hidden beneath the nature sounds so that it doesn't bug you to the point where you turn it off.

I've been listening to 528 hz with river sounds (although I've forgotten what it is supposed to cure. Apparently not memory loss).

Returning now to my choice of cafe companions, I am saying that Indonesians speaking common Indonesian language to one another is like nothing more than a frequency to me. It is white noise. It is just a sort of babble, like a babbling brook one might say. It is non-obtrusive background and does not interrupt my train of thought at all as I read whatever book I happen to be reading. 

On the other hand, English immediately intrudes, and divides my attention. Especially English spoken by an American. 

Such was the case at the cafe this morning. A young American woman was talking by phone link up on her laptop with a faraway friend. Try as I might to avoid it, I soon find myself pulled into the conversation and away from the page. 

Who? the woman is saying. Oh Shirley? Yes I know Shirley. I've known her for years. And then what? She did WHAT? Oh my God! No way!

What? What?, my brain chimes in. What did Shirley do???

But while the woman's words on this end are perfectly clear, I cannot make out what the faraway voice is saying. This is frustrating, because now I will never know what Shirley has done. 

What goes around comes around, the woman is saying. I keep my distance from toxic people. Wait, what? Pregnant? At her age?!

OMG, poor Shirley.  Poor well-deserving toxic Shirley. But wait... What is meant by at her age? It may be that Shirley is 16, and then again it may be that she is 60. I have no way of knowing. Is Shirley truly toxic, or is she merely elderly? Would asking the woman to fill me and be too creepy?

To make things worse, the young woman now begins speaking in broken, really bad Indonesian. Oh my god, is Shirley Indonesian? And pregnant? At her age?

The trouble now is that although I cannot easily understand Indonesian as it is commonly and fluently spoken by Indonesians, I can understand bad Indonesian very well because I, like this woman, speak bad Indonesian quite fluently. It's like listening to the naked frequency tone without the pleasant babbling of the natural sounds.

And it is ultimately too much for me. This frequency is not a healing frequency. It is a fingernails on chalkboard frequency, and it has proven to be sufficiently toxic to drive me away.