The other evening I was doing some random chores around the home. As is my habit I put some music on. I still use CD’s and have a 100 disk changer, so it is easy to pick the tunes to suite the mind, and then listen to an entire album, which I believe many people miss out on today. Here is a rundown:
Dishes, Led Zeppelin 2
Clean Fish Tank, Green Day, Insomniac
Cook Dinner, James (The Best of)
The point here is not domestic chores but the music. The music was on and I listened as I worked and didn’t think much of it until later that evening. The CD player was still rolling through the disks, and in the process left the Rock ‘n’ Roll section and moved to classical.
This time it was Holst “The Planets.” A piece of music that assigns personality to the planets and then expounds on those qualities musically….amazing. (Those of you who don’t know it have heard riffs of it copied on soundtracks like Star wars, Pirates of the Caribbean or anything else Hans Zimmer has his hands in.)
The Holst piece starts soft and builds, its “Mars, the bringer of War” and you can feel the tension build in the music, martial sounding and rhythmic in the back, as the violins swarm over head, a hero is found and the battle joined. Then the piece moves on to “Venus, the bringer of Peace” which of course is different. Now however I was listening to the music, no chores, no kids, no distractions other than the fish. As an added bonus this music wasn’t flattened by compression and jammed through tiny speakers, it was full on dynamic cd quality, through speakers large enough to annoy my wife. Mids, tweets, lows and the gut turning sub woofer. This is music! And I was truly and finally enjoying it, not the way Holst intended sure, but as close to it as you can get in a living room. It was transcendental.
We are busy people, and use our gadgets to cram more into our lives per minute than is usually healthy. I have a MP3 player and it has its purposes, as does the radio in the truck, the TV and the clock radio. Music makes the work seem less mundane, and who hasn’t found themselves driving faster when a good Van Halen tune hits the speakers, or finds the first warm day of spring isn’t sweeter with a Bob Marley song coming through the porch window?
When was the last time you listened? Really listened? For me it had been a long time, I bet for the 16 or so people who read this blog regularly it has been awhile for you as well. If you’re a music lover I don’t need to expound on the faults of headphones and MP3’s. Music not your thing? Get outside; find a comfortable spot and sit down and un plug. Doesn’t even have to be in the woods as cities have their own flavor of sounds, just listen and relax. Follow your thoughts. Have some real time on your hands? Try this in the desert canyons, silent except your heart beat and nature.
Sit someplace bigger than you are, alone for a day, and listen, you will come to piece with yourself. It will change you. Some people find god, others reject it, some can’t stand to be alone with themselves, but you will know where you stand, just because you listened.
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