Monday, April 20, 2009

It is all Music...

Throughout the past seemingly long yet quick phase of my life I have come to a realization; a theory in fact. One's mind is like a room, like any other composed of four corners, four pillars. I believe that to each person these corners are composed of specific items that are the composites of his mental and emotional state at the time. These items/pillars may change by time, and they may also remain eternally constant depending on the person. Unlike the average room however, no light bulb hangs in the middle, but rather in each one of the corners. These light bulbs never light up all at once, except on extremely rare occasions. Once one approaches one of these corners it lights up, and the second he moves away it fades to black. When one stands in one of the corners in his mind, he is surrounded by all what this corner entails which in turn can be either very painful or an absolute delight. Consequently I have come to a very pre-mature and humble conclusion. One can either spend most of his time in one corner for fear of leaving it in darkness in order to visit another, stand torn in the middle of the room in eternal darkness, or actually try to trigger some sort of chain reaction by which he lights up all the corners of his mind. I believe that a man, who has the four corners of his mind lit up, has reached a state of vigilance and clarity. This is something I also believe we're all looking for, since no one wants to be stuck or trapped in the middle of his own mind. My current state of mind suggests that the four corners of my mind are emotions, memories, faith and acceptance. Accordingly I have been trying to create a ripple in one of these corners that would henceforth light up my whole mind. Everyone has dark corners in their mind, few dare to visit…

As complicated and philosophical as the past lines may seem, they are nothing but an introduction to the upcoming ones. A couple of weeks back I was taking one of my midnight drives through the city, visiting my usual places of comfort to clear up my mind. It was one of the nights when I stood in the middle of my mind, in complete darkness. The radio was on playing back to back tunes, none of which caught my attention. Suddenly however, one of my favorite songs of all time started playing. It was as if my whole system was jumpstarted and my mind was flooded with light. The music flowing through my ears caused an eruption in my mind, creating a circular motion of light in a square room.

Music is an absolute beauty; it is one of those simple yet powerful pleasures in life. This indeed could be a topic I could write about endlessly, and I would end up not giving it enough credit. Why should I describe something that we all hear and experience daily?

This brings me to my latest and recurring reflection. When I felt exhilarated because of the song playing on radio, it wasn't the song per se that got to me despite what it meant to me. It was actually the fact that it got played at this specific and exact moment, at the time I needed it most. It was the fact that it was completely out of my control, a gift if I may say. Some people actually take signs from these pretty coincidences, I didn't. It just got me thinking about the idea of radio. I believe there's a striking similarity between life and radio. Radio is indeed a lot like life; you have no control over it, not all what is being played is particularly your taste and there are a lot of other people listening. The mere fact that thousands or maybe millions are listening to same thing, just gets to me. It in some way connects all those who are listening. A song that makes one cry his heart out, witnesses the beginning of someone else's love story. You never know…

When I get a disgusted grimace on my face as a result of "my mind on my money and my money on my mind" playing, I instantly imagine a bunch of best friends raising their car's roof. You never know…

There are few things that I never seize to think about however. I always wonder whether someone else is actually listening now to this song. I also wonder if they're experiencing the same set of emotions, or a whole different combination. That is one of the ways by which I believe radio connects us…

One thing I also think about is how radio can also surprise you and throw one of the "lost treasures" at you; in my case it would be "deliberately lost treasures". The fights erupting from those 3-4 minute confrontations are zero-sum and are never in your favor. As I mentioned earlier, songs have different effects on different people listening.The intriguing case however is when one song manifests different effects on one person at different time periods. A song that once placed a person on top of the world, can bury him under piles of misery later in the course of life. Just like life radio will throw at you your worst fears when you least expect it, a song with which you share a love hate relationship. A song that terrifies you, a song that makes you bleed every time you listen to it. This has also driven me to a conclusion. Never go into a battle with your favorite song. You will always lose. I believe that songs deliver endless messages through the lyrics and music. The change in your perception to this message doesn't necessarily mean hating or running away from the song. Never fight your favorite song, you'll always lose. By fighting it, you're simply fighting the emotions and memories to which this song is attached. That is one fight no one can afford to go through with..

Once a favorite song, always a favorite song.

Radio also shows us the people who are hiding inside us; it is all about the element of surprise. The absolute lack of control and the randomness in music create a sense of anticipation and thrill to me. Music played randomly and at distant time intervals shows you the angry, nostalgic, loving, hating, caring, regretful, optimistic, pessimistic, wishful and forgiving person you hold within or in my case, the absolute goofball. You could be all these people on one day of radio, while on another you can be just one.On other days however you can be none…

Regardless of what is playing and in spite of one's particular taste, I believe that it is all music. A hip hop song's lyrics could be what a rocker relates most to and some trance track could be exactly what incites a metal-head's passion…

It is all music, and that is yet another addition to my endless list of conclusions…

Life is a non-stop streaming radio…

It is all music.

The Song: Watch Over You - Alter Bridge