Why Music is Important to Me

I think it's important to examine the things that we care about. Along with my family and my writing, music is one of the most important things in my life. I never feel like I have a good answer when someone asks, "Why is it so important?" It's easy to describe why my family is important and my writing because I'm involved in both. My family gives me strength, I never have to worry about not having someone to talk to, and in the case of the kids, someone to play with. My writing is an outlet, an experiment, something I'm good with.

I'm fairly certain most of my friends don't see me as a particularly musical (and certainly not musically talented) individual. I know maybe a novice or a dabbler, but what they don't see is that the reason I love the music of others so much is because I've never had the guts to share my own. I make excuses a lot--I only have a choral voice, I only sing karaoke because I don't have time, and I'm into only country and older stuff when I'm singing and I don't think my friends would like it. They aren't lies necessarily, but I don't think that the things I tell others and the things I tell myself are completely authentic and genuine.

Like much of my writing, my interest in music is raw and passionate, albeit sometimes inappropriate for mixed company and certainly children. I am not comfortable sharing that part of myself publicly. It's not even that I criticize people who do--I'm just not a publicly emotional person. I get upset and I laugh and I'm genuine with my friends, but there's a layer I don't think many people have ever seen and I honestly doubt they will.

Music is so different across a vast landscape and hearing and feeling and being a part of that kind of energy is amazing. You may teach a monkey to speak and to write, a dog to type, a cat to yowl, but the raw creativity of our environment, I believe gives humans this amazing ability to create and share on such a level that awakens the worst and best parts of our memories, thoughts, and ideas. If I had half the balls a lot of my friends do, maybe I'd come out of the shell. I'm not there yet. Maybe someday...





(I love xkcd...)