Musical chairs

Feeling too frustrated and hopeless to do anything but blow myself up on minesweeper, I listen to the music, finding tracks in which to lose myself. Music is wonderful. Forget the world, love everyone around you, relive memories smelling of lilacs in the rain or must and leather. Every inflection of every emotion has music suited to it. Some serve to dullen our senses and emotions, others to intensify.

It seems contradictory that a song produced by one person is liked by millions around the world, and that each of those listeners feels it expresses their own self. What a testament to human nature... When you say, "I love this song", the other person doesn't love the same song that you do. Each person associates different memories, meanings, friends, and points of view. The intensely personal nature of what one actually hears means that no two peole can feel quite the same.

I wish there was some kind of roadmap to feelings--who wouldn't? Sometimes we are caught up in emotions stronger than we predicted. Other times a lack of sentiment can surprise and worry us. I find that music helps me to settle into a certain mood or emotion, can motivate me or feel more sad, depending on what I want.

Not all of us can be musicians, or artists, or photographers, poets, models, film directors, sports players. In some ways these people are changing our world every day, setting the bar of most goals in a season to making us believe in the human race. On the other hand, only a few people in any field rise to this level.

Seeing the significance from the point of view of the lowly worker bee is a daunting task, and discouraging to even want to look. Without the routine pushing of the same buttons there would be no electricity, our work places would become unendurably filthy, we'd have no stamps to send mail in the post, liquid paychecks would not be deposited to bank accounts.... it all starts to build up.

Biomass food pyramid: basically, one hawk eats everything underneath him in the pyramid. Without that extra pound of plant life, a rabbit would die, and a snake would go hungry, and this could be the final blow to the hawk. Each of these organisms contributes energy to the next level. So all the great, amazing, world-changing people are approximately the sum of all the people who have ever helped them--and the people who have helped those people, and so on.

Images from

http://www.vermot-gauchy.com/photos/uncategorized/music_2.jpg

http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/sci/