Hello darkness my old friend

Travel enlightens you and awakens you to the differences there are among us. When you travel your friends will call you "lucky". But as you are becoming aware of the bigger world around you and as you share your vision, you may hope that your friends will move forward with their own dreams. But the reality is that:

Some will hear, but not listen. 

Some will listen, but not understand.

And some will understand, but not act.

Paul Simon wrote these words below and he and Art Garfunkel sang it to us in 1964, and today we still need to heed the words in this song.

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams, I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone

'Neath the halo of a street lamp

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light, I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

No one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "You do not know

Silence like

a cancer

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you"

But my words like silent raindrops fell

And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out

it's warning

In the words that it was forming

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets

Are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls"

And whispered in the sounds of silence