Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Whispering has something special about it. It is soft speech that is presumably only meant to be heard by the person receiving it. As children we whispered when we didn't want our parents to hear, or lovers whisper to each other. But also evil or sinister, sometimes uncanny things are communicated in whispers. Our self-talk often also takes place in whispers. It reveals how we think about ourselve...

In the past, coffee grinders were used to grind coffee beans. They were a kind of wooden container with a crank at the top, which was then revolved around its own axis and ground the roasted coffee beans into coffee powder. Actually a good thing, I think to myself: grinding was done as needed and no electric power was necessary either. I don't know anyone who still does this today that way. Howeve...

The other day I had set my mind accomplishing something. I went into the situation full of motivation - but then I was so distracted that it only occurred to me much later that I had completely forgotten what I went into the situation to do. So I had allowed myself to be distracted without wanting to be and without being aware in advance that it could happen that way. When I became aware of this,...

Do you wear a necklace or have you ever worn one? One with a pendant? Often the necklace is virtually only a means to having a pendant in a unique place where nothing else is present. Sometimes visible, sometimes hidden. But often a pendant is worn for a special reason. For example, as a reminder in the sense of keeping alive experiences, usually with special people or unique moments. But there ar...

Not so long ago, many households received their television signals via satellite dishes, often installed on balconies. So there were these bizarre pictures of houses littered with these dishes, several of them on each floor, at least one for each flat. Today, these are already "tempi passati" and today we receive TV signals from even more channels via cable. So in the past, the reception of extern...

It used to be that in the theatre it was "Curtain up!" Then the performance began. Some people still have curtains at home. They prevent people from seeing in from the outside. So not everyone can see into our private lives. They are a visual protection. In certain areas of our lives we prefer to open partially our curtains - we are transparent to a certain extent. In others, we choose closed curt...

Have you ever seen a single grain of sand? Or a raindrop? They are insignificantly small. But is there a sandy beach without individual grains or a rain without the individual drops? Insignificant in their individual occurrence, perhaps, but decisive and important and perceptible in the aggregate. It is the same with our thoughts. We may not even notice a single one. Nor whether it is positive or...

When I imagine a palm tree, I see a long trunk and only at the top the large leaves and immediately below its fruits, the coconuts. So these are not easily accessible. This is also the case with trees in our regions. The tree protects its fruits by making them inaccessible in a certain way - until they are ready for harvesting. If they were easily accessible, the inexperienced or impatient would t...

Today, many of us go to the gym. What used to be important for only a few is now important for almost everyone: an investment in health. For some, it's just an investment in an attractive body. Either way, we can only experience changes in our bodies, for example muscle growth, if we keep giving ourselves new impulses, impulses that push us to the appropriate physical limits. We say "no pain, no g...

According to the Duden dictionary, tolerance is the ability of forbearance or the willingness to accept a different view, attitude, customs, habits, etc. In our time, I observe that precisely those who accuse others of a lack of tolerance because they hold a certain opinion are extremely intolerant towards them and do not have this ability of forbearance that they demand from others. Or some would...

In these days of climate protection, energy production from coal, for example, is very controversial. On the one hand, it is considered very harmful for the climate, on the other hand, many livelihoods, jobs and thus economic aspects depend on it. Many of us find it difficult to make changes or adjustments for good reasons. I have said it before. The creature of habit in us then goes wild. But nev...

A few months ago, during a stay at the clinic, I created communion dishes out of clay. Since then, I have taken communion from it almost every day. Today, my wife broke this homemade dish. That hurt. I associated so many memories with it. There is no equivalent replacement. It was nothing big, had hardly any material value. But still... Letting go is sometimes difficult for me. But it also sets me...

When we talk about ladders, most of us have a clear picture in mind: two vertical bars made of metal or wood connected parallel to each other with rungs in between. Ladders give us access to higher or lower levels that we would find difficult or impossible to reach without their help. Therefore, they are an excellent aid: be it in buildings or even for harvesting. In the German language, however,...

In German there is a saying that goes like this: "They are no good to eat cherries with.". You say this when you don't get on well with someone. The expression comes from the Middle Ages. At that time cherries were very rare and expensive. Only richer people could afford them. If they met to eat cherries together and discovered guests who had not been invited, they would spit cherry stones and ste...

You either like it or you don't, but I hardly know anything in between. It's all about coffee. Coffee can be consumed in many different ways: with milk or sugar or milk foam or as an espresso, ristretto, lungo, with aroma and with chocolate on the milk foam, and so on. The fact is, however, that with almost all of these variations, the taste changes immediately as soon as something is added. Even...

There are many fairy tales and stories and especially parents or grandparents like to tell them to their children. But adults also read, watch and listen to them: whether crime series or fiction books. We experience or find something in these stories that we obviously lack in our lives and everyday life. However, I believe that it is not primarily our purpose to seek and live through these longing...

Have you ever tried to take a bath in a bathtub without a plug? Somehow it doesn't work, because the water keeps running out. And even if you try to seal the hole with something else, water is constantly draining out and the bath is not really relaxing. So if everything is constantly flowing through - metaphorically speaking - it can be cleansing in certain cases. So when I take a shower, I prefer...

When people describe something as hairy, they don't mean anything positive by it, rather something tedious, difficult. Yet I think hair is something fascinating: so fine and inconspicuous a single hair. But in the mass on the head, it insulates and protects from the cold.  But then there is also the hair in the soup that you don't like. And yes, with age they turn grey for most and we lose th...

My experience has taught me that gullibility is often equated with naivety and tends to be ridiculed and judged as immature. But gullibility has many advantages: you are open, you trust and you get involved in something that you don't really know or can control. The opposite of gullibility... I don't know. But I would say it would be hard-heartedness. Jadedness. Detachment. And in the long run, li...

I was already fascinated by radios as a boy. You could just turn on a device and listen to music or receive a programme. The principle is simple: there is a transmitter and the radio is a receiver, capable of converting the received signals back to how the transmitter sent them out in code. And even more fascinating: whether the radio is on or not, the transmitter information is simply there. You...

Many of us today have a smartphone and are also connected to each other through social media. Probably most of us have activated the function to receive a notification when a message arrives. So we are informed immediately after a message arrives. I turned off this automatic notification feature some time ago - since then I feel better somehow. I feel like a pressure has been removed. These notifi...

Autumn is harvest time - a wonderful time when so much has ripened and can now be enjoyed: Fruits, vegetables and much more. But for it to come this far, a lot is necessary. The farmer's work, of course - but: no less: his trust. He scatters the seed in spring. He trusts nature, the soil, the weather, or in other words: the one who brought it all into being and created it, and ensures that it rain...

When I was in the US, of course I went out to eat. And there were some restaurants called steakhouses. And as the name suggests, there was meat, lots of meat, not only steaks of course, but also. I was also invited by local friends to go to a steakhouse with them and I was looking forward to the food. And of course, on the way there, I didn't imagine myself eating spaghetti or a pizza - but meat....

When I recently passed a bus stop, a father said to his very small child: The bus will be here in 6 minutes! No doubt he meant to express that it won't be long until the bus arrives. But I thought to myself: the little child probably has no idea of how much or what 6 is, nor what minutes mean. But it simply trusted the father's statement and was satisfied. In life, there are many situations in whi...

A wire mesh is a network of sturdy, usually solid wire that spans a kind of orthogonal net and thus enables a kind of fence in the vertical or a kind of fixed plane in the horizontal. So although air can circulate through it and you can see through it without any problems - you still can't go through it vertically but you can't fall through it horizontally either. A bit of wire connected to each o...