Central Park, New York City Really? No, of course it’s not quiet—but it is amazingly quieter. You start hearing birds instead of brakes, wind in the trees instead of gusts coming up subway grates. Consider the sensory shift it brings as an opportunity, in a hugely crowded city, to remember the pleasures of listening. Marie Javins, author of Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik, says, “When I went to Shakespeare in the Park, I couldn’t help but marvel that the actors spoke against a backdrop of crickets, not buses. We were just a few blocks in from the surrounding city but somehow the buses, horns, and voices of Manhattan can’t reach into…