Living in Music

I figure I'd jump off the topic of aviation for a second, which is a rarity these days, and talk about another important facet in my life: Music. Yesterday I heard a friend say something that registered with me and that was that he couldn't stand people who lived life by quotes or songs. He ended his thought with "live your own life and create your own tune". This is a rather interesting thought considering I'm a fan of quotes (as you can see by the way I end every post on this website) and I deal with a lot of issues that life throws my way by reflecting on them while listening to music. To be fair, I do believe that I understand what he was trying to say and that's that a lot of people use quotes and other cliches to justify their thoughts and actions by proxy instead of embracing them as their own. Yet, however shallow it may be for some people to use songs that relate to their issues as a way to communicate them, I think it's an important part of releasing stress and allowing yourself to internally self-analyze.

Regardless, I thought I'd respond to the aforementioned thought with a few songs that have helped me along the way (and I'll post them below as well). The first, A Praise Chorus by Jimmy Eat World has been my favorite song since I was nineteen. I was an angry kid who was on his way to Iraq and really didn't grasp the full reality of what I was about to know about both the world and myself. It was a huge adventure and whenever I would think of the risks involved I would remind myself that if I were to ever be apart of something bigger than myself, I'd have to take those chances. I feel that this song helped me to quietly celebrate the chances taken and the experiences gained.

The next song, My Hero by the Foo Fighters was a song I started really playing a lot when I was overseas because it calmed me down and empowered me. Far removed from what I was actually doing over there, I was told mid way into my deployment that due to a disease that my father was fighting, there was a possibility he wasn't going to live to see me come home. I'm lucky to now be able to say that the chemotherapy and stem cell replacement treatment that he underwent saved his life and put his condition in regression, however at the time this brought a lot of added stress. That and the realization of a failed relationship with a woman I had been with for five years really took its toll on me. As far as the song is concerned, I used to have a set playlist I would play while on convoy and I can remember listening to the song My Hero over and over again, taking solace in the lyrics "[T]here goes my hero, watch him as he goes. There goes my hero, he's ordinary". Those words resonated with me as they affirmed that even an ordinary nineteen year old kid might have to heroically bare the weight that life has put upon him. Kind of heavy stuff, but it helped.

The third song, Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World, is a song that I asked my father to play at my funeral if something unfortunate happened to me. After a friend was killed by a road side bomb in August of 2005 I was having a hard time dealing with the loss and looked for any sort of control in the whirlwind of feelings that came with it. I was listening to my mp3 player a few nights later and remember as the song played hearing the words "May angels lead you in, hear you me my friends. On sleepless roads, those sleepless go: May angels lead you in". In a weird way the picture that the words painted were comforting and with that I wanted to share that with my family in the event that something happened to me. That was about the only control I had in the matter.

My last example is Wont Back Down by Tom Petty (the example below is Johnny Cash) and I chose it as my last example because the previous three were songs that begun to speak to me when I was in Iraq. This song has always helped me to focus on the seriousness of a good life while faced with challenges that stand in its way. I feel that sometimes it's important to remind yourself that life is a fight, for better and for worse, and that backing down from those challenges, how ever grave they may be, shouldn't be an option. This song helps to remind me of that.

Of course, I suppose these are all really heavy examples of the importance of living life through music but the above is really only a small portion. I literally listen to every kind of music and for different reasons. When I was in basic training I used to hum the tune of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" because the irony made me laugh despite being in a place not known for its good times. When I go out on the town with the boys I'm often blasting Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly as we work our way to the bottoms of our glasses. When I'm thinking of simpler times I'll probably be rocking out to Blink182 because it reminds me of Middle and High School. And if I'm doing homework and I need to find myself "in the zone", you'll hear an assortment of classical music. My point with all of this is that people from all time periods and cultures have used music for a variety of things. In celebration, to cope with sadness, to mark an occasion, and to just past the time; music is a large part of many peoples lives and moreover, an important one.

I'll end this with one last thought: Perhaps not everyone experiences music the same way or can even agree on what the definition of good music is, but isn't it that inability to put our feelings into words that which makes music so amazing?

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music." - Albert Einstein