Music from Another Room

I love not having to rush.

Lately, I've been pretty much caught up on all my to do lists at work, and can afford to take just a little bit of 'me' time at work. I do this from time to time, tracking things down online that I don't have the patience to search for on my dialup at home. Usually, I'm just curious about something, so I look it up, then find something about that something that I want to look up, etc, and I just follow that thread until it runs out, starts repeating itself, I get bored, or I have to get back to work. Sometimes, it truly does feel like surfing. And it's lovely.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today.

I want to just take a moment to appreciate those moments when you hear a bit of music, and you're immediately pulled out of whatever it is you were doing, and sucked into the sound. I've been trying to put my finger on it for a while now, to describe the sensation perfectly, and I've come to realize that it's not something that words can do justice to. Words can't touch it. Colors can't touch it (but they can come closer than words, in my opinion). But when it's sound, and it hits you just right, it's the only thing that can reach that part of you.

And you can remember those times, can't you? You can remember that time, back in school, when you were driving home from the movies, and you heard your new favorite song on the radio. Or, when a friend put a cd on, and started singing along and you thought, "how can this be, that I'm just now hearing this for the first time, while not only have they heard it before me, but they've known about it long enough to learn the words?" Or, as was the case with me the other night, you're watching a movie, and a piece of music begins to play softly in the background. Suddenly one part of your brain is paying attention to the story, but another part of your brain is completely distracted (in a good way) by the music.

It's good stuff.



By the way, in case you were wondering, I was listening to Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op.23, performed by Emanuel Ax.