Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello wonderseekers!
From my office in Nice, I can hear little children playing on the beach. As I type, their sharp mirthfilled shrieks float like cottonwood seeds in the wind, softened by the short distance they travel, bringing a smile to my lips and a certain peacefulness to my mind. I imagine them fleeing a big wave or perhaps spying some sea critter for the first time. When I hear a sound like this, I am reminded of the phrase from the bible, “a joyful noise.”
Something in my modern brain finds the juxtaposition of the words “joyful” and “noise” incongruent, and I like it. “Noise” is usually seen as a negative, but a joyful noise sounds like something I can get behind. That verbal tug-of-war is the kind of dually-valenced/mixed emotion place where wonder often resides. I don’t need to see these little toddling humans to know they are perfectly present in their wonderfilled state, full of sun cream and juice boxes and joyful noises.
There’s something known as the Pivot Questionnaire. You may know it as the ten questions James Lipton used to ask at the end of his interviews from his show, Inside the Actor’s Studio. Two of the questions I always loved hearing the answers to were what sounds the actor loved and hated. So often the sound they loved was a child’s laughter. A joyful noise. A cheerful cocophany. A jubilant sound.
Below, some of the benefits of sound.
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
The power of sound in activism: Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon on the tremendous power of communal singing, from a 1991 PBS special with Bill Moyers.
Sound healing: A psychologist explores the healing power of ‘sound baths’
Science Friday Podcast: Could light and sound therapy treat Alzheimer’s?
I shared last week that I’m always trying to improve the newsletter to make it better for you, so I have a single-question survey you can find here. Your feedback would be so appreciated! Also, I finally included video captions for greater accessibility. I hope you find those helpful.
Thank you to everyone who is part of the Wonderbringer community!
With wonder,
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