Notes

What is music to me?

Music is connection. Can't you see it? The cords of headphones tangled together, the stretching lines of the staff, all twisted and twirling around us. It binds us together tighter than any other bond. To make, to listen, to music with another, is a new trust, a deeper bond. Music is favorite songs listened to and understood by someone else. Laying stretched out with the volume up, trying to hear more than just sound. Music is what the soul is made of. It is no coincidence that our favorite songs feel like home, or that when someone likes the same music as us, we immediately become friends. It is no coincidence that listening to someone's music can help you understand them. Music is an expression of the beauty in everything. In pain and sorrow and joy, in funny times and serious. Music is fault and fascination. Music is connection. Pulling all these ideas together, pulling all these people together. Music makes the human soul dance, and erupt in color and light. Music helps us to feel understood and loved. Music is like a hug, a hand to hold, a string of hope tethering us to this world when all else is lost. I need music like I need to eat, but more. Because in addition to nourishing and expanding my soul, it is a comfort, a warmth for my soul, and an empathetic word when no one else is near. Music is necessary to the survival of what we are.

We are human, and we are music.