Borrowed Chords

"Without music, life would be a mistake" -Friedrick Nietzsche

If I manage to keep up this routine of writing, and anyone makes the effort to read more than one post they will quickly find that I temper all of my sentimentality with a double dose of cynicism. A friend once told me that it came with the territory of being a writer. That is was the result of being an idealist surviving in a depressing world. We laughed about it and then I continued to read my copy of Jude the Obscure. I thought of this today after getting into an argument with a co-worker.

The argument started with another co-worker punishing us with a putrid barrage of rap lyrics, and me making the comment to my friend that I was glad I had good taste in music. Being the idiot that my friend is, he insisted that there was no such thing as 'bad' music and that it was all about taste. I resisted the urge to punch him in the throat and instead set into the task of explaining how he was wrong. While I agreed that taste influences an individual's opinion of music, there were set ways to judge the quality of music based on lyrical and musical merit.

But there was another quality of good music that I neglected to bring up. Mostly because it could have been used to weaken my argument, but partially because I didn't feel like beating my head against the wall trying to get the point across to him any longer. The emotion that music evokes within the listener is just as important if not more important than the quality of the music itself. This finally brings me to the point of this particular anecdote. How is it that the right song at the right time can have such a profound emotional effect on us?

I didn't begin really listening to music until I graduated high school. My memories before then are dull and I find I often have a difficult time remembering what I was feeling during even the most important moments. But then my music library began to grow and certain songs tied themselves to memories. It was not something I did intentionally. It just happened that I would hear the right song and suddenly all the emotions that I was feeling. All the sorrow, despair, love, joy, hate, and pain would be forever connected to that song. Some songs that I once loved were deleted because of the pain they would bring back to the surface, while other songs that once annoyed me were listened to over and over again.

That brings me to tonight. Sitting alone listening to my iTunes as it conjures up memory after memory. Some make me want to change the world, while others remind me only of how empty I have been feeling lately. I do not know why or how music has this sort of power over me, and right now I do not care. There is a beauty to being able to live the past, and despite the dangers of getting lost it is something that I feel everyone must do now and then. Memories are the only way I know of defining who I am. They tell me where I came from, and how I got to where I am. Without them we have no way of knowing ourselves. We have no way of learning from our past, and without that ability we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over again. And that is what this blog is about. Learning from mistakes, so that I may build a better future.