TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND TRUMPETS

     As I sat in my college classroom last night while the students were quietly writing, I heard the hum of the heating system as it quietly did its work, and it started me thinking about two other “systems” that are special in usually unnoticed ways. First, there’s the system of traffic lights along the roads I travel each day – lights that allow me to easily and safely fulfill my daily responsibilities. I seldom give them a thought, those green and red and yellow signals that assist me in living my life with efficiency. They’re always there, shining at intersections in their trustworthy way, doing their duty dependably to get me where I need to go. I also thought, as I was watching the students write, about the sound system at the Navy base where I teach my evening classes. At the moment of sunset, my students and I stop what we’re doing to respectfully listen to a recording of a trumpet melody heard every evening at military bases around the world as our flag is ceremoniously lowered. On the base where I teach, a recording of a trumpet playing the tune is sent out through a system of speakers to the entire naval community, and for those few moments, everything, including an English class, comes to a silent stop as all flags on the base are lowered. We may be in an intense discussion about a short story or a writing assignment, but the discussion dutifully pauses when the sound system sends one of our country’s most cherished pieces of music out across the darkening streets and lawns and classrooms of the base.