Page 78 - Hmmm M the Humdinger Flipbook for HARP Sept 27 2020

M’s experiences make clear that most people today live in

“vocal deserts.” Humming, like music and immersion in nature,

are good for us. They heal.

- Ellen Dissanayake is the author of What Is Art For?, Homo

Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why, and Art and

Intimacy: How the Arts Began, all published by the

University of Washington Press, Seattle.

As I was listening to p. 8 on the computer in my bedroom, my cat,

who had been sleeping in the living room, came in and jumped up

on the desk beside me (as she often does). She heard a

hmmmmmm and immediately became alert and looked at the

screen with interest, then outside the window behind it. As other

Mmmmms sounded, she got up and looked behind the computer.

Throughout the story, whenever there were longish stretches of,

to her, boring people-language, she lay down and went back to her

usual thoughts. But when the various Mmmmms began again, she

always showed interest and looked at the screen.

- Kiisa Dissanayake, Seattle, Washington, USA