Marcelo Teixeira

Unpleasant Onomatopoeia

The cries, bua, bua, and the gu-gu-gu, cof-cofs, ti-ti-ti and trim-trims do not fit in doctrinal or artistic works: it is called onomatopoeia ⁽¹⁾ and it strongly jeopardizes all tasks

Some days had gone by since the 1969 or 1970 Carnival, when Conceicao, my mother’s cousin, arrived to visit us. I was a child, but I recall one of her conversations. Conceicao was outraged, and told us how she had witnessed something at the Carnival parade of the samba schools in the city of Petropolis (state of Rio de Janeiro), where we lived. A four year old child, dazed with sleep, begged its mother to go home. And the mother, quite upset, went on saying: “Wait a little! It is almost finishing”.  And the poor child, eager to go to bed, sat on the sidewalk and was forced by the mother to be among grown-up people, at night, and listening to a very high soundtrack of the Carnival parade. Conceicao was so upset with what she was witnessing that she almost argued with the child’s mother.

The years went by. I grew, studied, and became a Spiritist. However, I always remember the words of our cousin whenever I see something similar, especially in the Spiritist environment.

Once, I went to give a lecture at a Spiritist Centre in the Mountain Region of Rio de Janeiro. Everything was running smooth, until the moment when one of the Spiritist evangelizers brought a little child and handed him to his mother. In a couple of minutes, the child asked to leave because he was sleepy. However, the mother decided to stay until the very end of the lecture. The little boy was all the time begging to go home to sleep.

I said nothing, but I should have said: “Mother, take your little boy home! He wants to sleep! If he did not stay with the children’s evangelizer, he sure is not going to stay here at the lecture! Do not torture your child!”  Up to today I sure regret not having said that. 

Presence of children in a public lecture. Can they attend? 

I say this, because some years ago, the psychic and lecturer from Rio de Janeiro, Jose Raul Teixeira, went through a similar experience at a seminar in Petropolis. The house was full to listen to him. Among those present, there was a young woman with an approximately 3 year old little girl on her lap. Since it is impossible to make a child of that age keep still among an adult audience, she began to stir and wanted to go to the ground and started talking with that characteristic little voice. Jose Raul interrupted the seminar, turned around to the mother of that little girl and said: “Don’t do that to your child. This place is not an appropriate place for her. Your daughter is not paying attention to the seminar, you are not too, and the other people cannot pay attention to what is said, and I am also being hindered”. The young woman was surprised and embarrassed she took the child and left the room.

By now, some of my readers may think that I do not like the presence of children at the Spiritist public meetings. Yes, I don’t. However, it has nothing to do with the child, because the child has no fault in being there. I do not agree with what the parents do, by taking their small children to events that are not proper for their age. And when I mention events, I also refer to plays and similar, inside or outside the Spiritist Centre. I have already witnessed unusual situations.

Some years ago, there was a play, a big success in Rio de Janeiro, and it was presented in Petropolis during a weekend, at D. Pedro’s Theatre, which has approximately 600 seats. There was a long queue to buy the tickets and to go in – the theatre was crowded.  As soon as I entered, I saw a couple with a little baby asleep in its father’s arms. They had bought the tickets, insisted in going in, mas the producers did not allow them to enter because the baby could wake up and jeopardize the play. But he is so good, he will keep quiet, said the father. They did not have their way. The money of the tickets was returned to the couple and they went back home, from where they should have not left. And why not? Because they have a baby. And when one is going through this situation, we must be aware that we cannot go to some places for a while, unless we get a baby-sitter to look after the child. If not, we must just stay home with them.  

What a restless child can cause 

Many parents may say annoyed: “But I want to go to the Spiritist lecture or play”. It happens that other people want to do the same and, if there is a child crying, running, or asking to leave, they will not be able to do so. Let us have in mind that most probably there are people present with serious problems. They are tired, depressed, they have lost all hope. They yearn for a word of relief and encouragement. Cries and screams of children will certainly not allow this. And let us remember that in the tribune there is a speaker, who dedicated hours of study to prepare the lecture. He does not deserve to have his work jeopardized by a restless child.

The Spiritist speaker and writer, Pedro Bonilha, from the city of Jales (in the State of Sao Paulo), tells us in his book “Who is your son?” about a difficult moment he had during a speech in another city. Pedro, while he was talking, put the keys of his car on top of the table. In the same room – crowed – a little boy was running around the room. Then, he went to the table, and grabbed Pedro’s keys. Pedro had to stop what he was saying and run after the child to get his keys back. Part of the public was roaring in laughter and the other part was outraged by this situation. At no time did the leader of the meeting intervene. The same can be said as for the child’s parents. There was no action at all. I am surprised to see the inertia and moral cowardice of the Spiritist people when they have to establish rules for the parents of children with no manners.

I already experienced the same situation when I went to deliver a speech at a large Spiritist Centre. The wide room was crowded. As soon as I began to talk, a boy of approximately five years of age started to run around the room. Then he started to crawl under the chairs disturbing the people. The leader of the meeting did not say a word, so I interrupted my speech and called the kid’s attention. In a few seconds the mother appeared and took him outside. Thus, the speech could go on in peace.

An unusual but good humored experience 

Luzia Mathias, a physician and speaker from Rio de Janeiro (I am her fan), chose a solution with humor. As she was speaking during a brilliant seminar, a little girl on her mother’s lap began to babble. Since she saw someone talking, she was trying to say her first words. This can be very cute if the child is in a proper place. As the little girl’s babble began to affect the public speech, Luzia interrupted what she was saying, turned to the little girl and said sweetly: We are competing with each other, but I am going to win, because I have a microphone! There was a general laughter followed by applauses. This was enough for the mother to understand and leave the room with her little daughter.

I do Spiritist theatre for twenty years and have gone through several similar situations. I have to admit that when I see people holding children in their arms trying to assist some play that is not specifically for children, I get very concerned. At the end of one of the plays, a small child started to cry loud. Buaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! It was a cold night of July and, according to my mother, who was among the audience, the child started to cry because it was feeling cold. The screams were so strong that even after the child was removed from the place, one could still hear it. It was loud cry of someone who was desperate. While this happened, the actors, who had rehearsed the play for weeks on a go to show to the public a quality work, were affected and part of their final message could not be heard, and the public, who had paid for the ticked, was affected too. If it was a winter night, why take a child from its home and torture it by making it stay in a place that was not fit for it. 

To take a child to a lecture does not benefit it 

To take children to public Spiritist meetings indulge in another risk, the one of being submitted to another of the usual onomatopoeia: the chomp-chomp of the biscuit chewing. To keep the child quiet or busy, the parents buy packets of biscuits and let the children eat them at the public meeting. Luckily, I went through one of these chomp-chomp sessions only once. The difference is that I was the speaker. It is very annoying to have to talk and have as a musical background someone chewing biscuits. And to crown it, the person was sitting on the first row.

I return to what Jose Raul Teixeira said. Let us think about the children. They are submitted to an unnecessary stress and will jeopardize the environment for which they are not yet fit. If we do not have someone to leave them with, let us then stay home with them. Or we can take them to the park or to a similar place more adequate for children. To take children to a speech or artistic event for adults is very tiresome for them. Besides it affects the attention of the audience and of those involved with the presentation. This also goes for masses, evangelic cults, academic symposiums or any other inappropriate place for children, as much as many parents still insist in taking their children. I understand that many parents do this because they want to attend the event. However, if the child starts crying, playing or whatever, the parents will not be able to assist and will still disturb the audience, for sure.

I here make the same recommendation to the people that cough. I have seen many lectures, plays and classic music concerts be affected because someone in the audience coughed non-stop and opened their mouth when they did so. I witnessed a woman who coughed for three public meetings in a row. And she did it opening her mouth large. Cof-cof-cof! Did she not see how much she was disturbing everyone else? Didn’t she realize she needed to go to a doctor and see to herself?  

The non-stop cough and the conversations in the background 

If one cannot control the cough, then take a medicine prescribed by a physician, and stay home. Or, leave the room not to bother the others attending the event. Or put a handkerchief over the mouth, this reducing the annoying noise of the cough. According to an article I read in a scientific magazine, it reduces the noise in ten decibels and ten decibels less in a closed room makes a difference. I know that the one, who is coughing, wants to attend the meeting or show, but other people want to do the same and will not be able to do it too, if we do not make our part.

There is also the famous ti-ti-ti, the parallel conversation while the event is running, which ends up by disturbing who is sitting around those who cheerfully chat.

The Spiritist Centre was all decorated for a special occasion: the speech of an important speaker, who came from another state for the final event of a festivity that had lasted ten days. The room was crowed. The entrance was in the front part of the large room. Ten minutes before the starting of the event, a lady entered the room. I believe she was out of the city for some time, because as soon as she started walking in the main aisle, coming from the front door, looking for a seat, she was greeted by another lady, who was sitting in one of the first rows. I was sitting a little behind and so I witnessed everything. There was a first greeting, followed by a second one, a third, fourth, fifth… all in the same step, and accompanied by a friendly and long chat. She must be a very much loved lady, I thought to myself.

Meanwhile, the speaker arrived, welcomed the audience, and called someone for the prayer. The talking lady was still in the central aisle being embraced by someone else and there was the basic chat too. Then the main speaker was called and greeted everybody and began his speech and there was the woman still in the main aisle talking to everybody. She took her time to sit down. Meanwhile a good part of what the speaker had said was lost because she was standing in front of several people and they could not see the speaker. Finally, she sat down. I was one in the audience, who had been affected. She competed with the speaker for a minimum of ten minutes and she was not aware of what she was doing.

I know that it is very pleasant to see our friends again and greet them. But in an event like the one mentioned, the best thing is to take a seat and wave briefly and let the chat for after the lecture.  

And what about the mobiles and similar devices? 

I cannot end without mentioning the mobile sounds. I am going to call these little noises as trim-trims, thus symbolizing all the little songs, whistles and similar sounds when someone calls us on the mobile. I have already seen speakers, actors and teachers calling people’s attention because of these annoying sounds. I also saw in a video that some teachers in several countries destroy the mobiles after they grabbed them out the hands of their pupils. But let us remind ourselves that smartphones and similar must be disconnected when we attend classes, lectures, plays, seminars and so on. Let us avoid the disturbing buas, gu-gu-gu, chomp-chomps, cof-cofs, ti-ti-tis e trim-trims. It is onomatopoeia enough to affect and disturb our tasks.  

⁽¹⁾ Onomatopoeia: It is a word that when pronounced imitates the natural sound of the thing it is representing (murmur, whisper, wheezing, and tick-tack).