Do You Hear the Voices?

It is no secret that I love to read. When I read, I am in the book. I hear the voices of the characters and I know exactly how they should sound. In fact, it is because of the voices that I usually only read books that take place in the United States, and prefer books about the Appalachian region. The characters can take trips outside the U.S., but they must come back before the story ends. A book does not flow for me if I cannot hear the “right” voice. Reading becomes a chore if I know the voice is out of character because I do not have a resource for the proper accent. If the author is good, you will know if the voice is wrong.

My reading habits were often a subject of conversation between Raymond and me because of the voices. Raymond did not understand the “voices.” He did not hear voices, and he was fascinated that I could. He would ask me all the time to explain it to him, but I didn’t know how to explain it. I thought everyone heard voices when they read.

I was reading a book the other night with four main characters with each chapter highlighting one of the four. Each of these women had a different voice and a different feel to me. I was so disappointed when the book ended and my friends went away until the next time. But then I got to thinking that maybe it is because of the voices and my making friends with the characters and my being use to those “friends” going away until the next book, or maybe permanently, that I don’t’ keep up with my real friends as I should.

I am not really a phone caller. I have two friends I speak to on a regular basis on the phone, and several that I email short notes to several times a week, other than that, I have little contact with people except for meetings I attend. During the day if I feel lonely, I often take a ten minute break and catch up with whatever “new” friend is in my book instead of reaching out to a friend in the community.

It was this realization and the fact that I discovered that I have a friend who is suffering from a deep depression that made me decide that I need to reach out more. I need to contact the friends that I love but only see when I am dropping the kids off, shopping at Kroger’s, or attending a meeting. Reaching out to people is definitely out of my comfort zone, but it might be time for me to listen to some real voices for a change.