July 12, 2006
There's Never A Wish Better Than This…
I’m in Kilgore, TX right now. If you don’t know where that is, don’t feel bad. I didn’t either until I left to come here. In fact, now that I’m here, I’m still not exactly sure where it is. I’m here on business, and I here I will remain until Friday afternoon. It’s not the most exciting town in the world, but they do have a pretty nice Radio Shack. I know this for a fact, because I had to stop in to pick up a cable for the office that I’m doing work for.
While the gent I work with was buying the cable, I was meandering around the store, and I was over by the Car Audio section when the radio started playing “100 Years” by Five For Fighting. This particular tune happens to be one of my absolute favorite songs of all time, so I was understably happy to hear it. Very happy to hear it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was something of a moving experience. I’m not sure why, because I’ve heard the song countless times before, but this particular time it made me kind of emotional. I wasn’t quite on the brink of tears, but, frankly, I don’t think I was that far off. I can’t really explain it. I wasn’t extremely happy or sad, just kind of overcome by the music. Standing in Radio Shack. It just kind of hit me. What a beautiful song. I stood there and listened for a moment, and then it was time to leave.
And that was that. A moment come and gone. It was a nice reminder of how much music really does affect me, or everybody for that matter. Even a song that you’ve heard a thousand times before can suddenly strike you again on the 1,001st time. Or you’ll hear a song and suddenly remember what it made you think of the first time you heard it. Your mind might transport you back to the time or place that you associate with it. Or you might just hear it differently for once. Instead of hearing all the different parts of the song, you’ll suddenly hear it as a whole. You won’t hear the piano or the guitar or the vocals. You’ll just hear the song as a single entity, and suddenly appreciate it all the more, in a completely new way.
And, that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love music so much. Any song can mean any one of countless things to each different person, while it can also affect the same person differently each time they listen to it. The music that you’re listening to at any given moment accents whatever else you are doing at that time. And, likewise, whatever you are doing, wherever you are, and whoever you’re with accents whatever music you happen to be listening to. Music accents life, and life accents music.
It’s a beautiful thing.