Noise in the Intensive Care Nursery

THE PARABLE OF THE GARDEN

The problem of juxtaposing noise and premature babies brings to mind the paradoxical situation of my neighhbor's garden. This garden is an oasis of visual calm, with evergreen bushes sculpted into flowing waves in the traditional Japanese landscape style which alternate serenely with the perfect miniature green seas of the lawn. However, the great paradox here is the noise made by the tools needed to create this tiny paradise. The gas lawn mower is a familiar evil, but the latest laborsaving invention—the leaf blower— makes life as a neighbor hardly worth living while it's being used. It is the coexistence and contradiction of these opposites that provides the theme for this article on noise in the intensive care nursery.