Sound of Silence

I didn't watch the 9-11 memorial service on television, I was at church for most of it, plus I don't usually watch such things.

However, friends have been sending me the link to Paul Simon's performance of the "Sound of Silence" with the comment that it brought them to tears.  Yet certainly when Simon wrote the song in 1964 it had nothing to do with such a tragedy and could hardly speak to the audience he had on Sunday.

"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the signs said the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence."

In the 1960's, the song spoke to me about conformity, sterility and the sadness of life, akin to T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland."

The real question in my mind is why Simon decided to sing this particular song.  Was it because of the nation torn apart we've become since 2011?  That saddens me as much as the loss of life on that day.

"Silence like a cancer grows."

What do you think?