Global voices
There are voices to hear at the moment. I’ve been thinking about this over the past few weeks for different reasons, and on different levels. So I want to share some thoughts with you.
Recent news about the different projects going on to fight climate change, is starting to make me feel a lot more positive. We might actually be able to halt climate change and save this wonderful planet of ours.
I do my bit at home. We are lowering plastic use, composting, washing at lower temperatures, reducing meat consumption. (I Iive with carnivores 😊 so, it’s not easy, but we only eat meat a few times a week). That’s progress in our house. Yet it’s hard to feel like you’re really making a difference.
Then I look at projects like the the Pur Project and I think that the voices protesting climate change are actually being heard. Now that’s progress.
Local voices
Voices on a more local scale leads me to tell you about the wonderful Brontë Stones near Haworth / and the work of Michael Stewart .
My husband is on a web programming course at Huddersfield University. He was part of a group that came up with new ideas for Michael Stewart’s work on the Brontë Stones.
I read these stone poems for an audio track. You can listen to the poems as the camera pans round to them in their natural habitat carved in stones around Haworth. This also involved scaling a wall and vaulting a fence, but that’s another story!
Haworth is well worth a visit even if you don’t like poetry. There’s a lot to see and do there. And you can get a great coffee and veggie pasty from the health food shop at the top of the hill by the church. (I did say I was doing my bit 😊).
Listening to your own voice
But, when I listen to my own voice reading these fabulous poems, I don’t like it at all. The way your own voice sounds in your head is not necessarily how others hear you.
I can back this up too. I’ve recently been examining a module at work and watching (on zoom) viva presentations from my trainees. One of them said they thought I had a calming voice. Very useful when you’re trying to get someone to calm down to do their best in what is a stressful situation.
They get their feedback as an audio file. I always rerun it before I upload it for them – just to be sure…and I still think my voice is not one I would want to listen to. Jackanory is safe for a little longer! But you never know…