Thankful Thursday

If you have any interest at all in instrumental classical music, this album needs to be in your rotation. Photo from Amazon

Warren Zevon recorded The Wind while in the process of dying. The music is understandably contemplative and melancholy, and still uplifting. Photo from Amazon

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing

Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty

What would life be?

— Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus

I was really busy earlier this week, so instead of Grateful Monday, here is Thankful Thursday.

I was listening to a Hidden Brain podcast on how we change our beliefs Tuesday. In it a woman was on her way to an appointment where she would be diagnosed with ALS. She was listening to Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” which is from an album he recorded while dying. It got me thinking about how we build soundtracks for our lives.

Music is a universal language. Many of us like songs in languages we don’t speak. Sarah Chang’s performance of Chopin’s “Nocturne #20” proved (to me, anyway) that a performance doesn’t have to have words to bring us to tears. Then there’s the whole genre of rock, where you’re hard pressed to understand the words, even with a libretto.

Unfortunately, most of us are not open to new forms of musical expression after our mid-twenties.

Even so, I’m grateful for music.

• For the opportunities it gave me to travel and grow and get over stage fright
• For the learning opportunities of life on the road
• For the ways it brings people together
• For its ability to communicate complex ideas and build empathy or movements