What is in a voice?

July 2, 2009

I was a little anxious this morning thinking about ‘what do I want to say?’ on my new and very first blog. Almost immediately the word ‘say’ jumped out at me! Such a little word that represents the major conduit through which we participate in this world. I just read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle in which the main character, a young boy named Edgar, is mute. He learned to sign when he was very little but to be understood someone had to know how to read his signs. And, if they weren’t looking at him, they’d miss it. And when he was in danger, his scream was silent. I’d never thought about it like that.

When I was in graduate school I studied social communication in fruit bats. I discovered they used specific sounds for particular activities like ‘its time to eat’ or ‘let’s make a baby’ or ‘I’ll groom you if you groom me’. But even cooler than that was that bats in the same colony recognized one another by their voices. And moms can pick out their own baby’s isolation cry, even when their baby was one of a hundred other babies. That’s how they hook up to nurse. For being such tiny creatures, they teach us about the evolutionary elegance of social communication.

Later, I wanted to find a way to detect pain in small sick newborn infants who can’t ‘say’ they’re in pain. At that time, the medical world didn’t believe that infants, particularly premature infants, felt pain. We showed that their cries changed systematically when they were exposed to different types of medical procedures and that these changes were indicative of different pain intensities. A growing awareness of the important information imbedded in their cries led to a gradual improvement in pediatric pain management around the world. What’s in a single voice? Enough to change the world!

This afternoon, I attended a gathering of 30 high school students - half black, half white, half Jewish. They just returned from a 3 week Cultural Leadership trip to the east coast and throughout the South. They visited sites where landmark racial, religious, gender and civil rights events occurred in our country. They were witness to personal stories of slavery, the holocaust, discrimination and hardship. Through the lens of their African American and Jewish life experiences, they taught us about the impact of injustice, of not speaking up and of not listening. I was deeply moved by the power their voices carried, the power to make a difference. Thirty kids whose lives were changed and who will now change the lives of others.

Looking forward….let’s take these stories to the next level.

1. Where in your life are you not speaking up? Find your own voice.
2. Notice the impact your words have on others. Is that the impact you desire?
3. Is there someone who really needs for you to listen to them? Take the time to do that. What’s that like for you? For them?

Till next time, Fran