So I'm pretty proud of my boys (yes, men) since they have their own opinions of real facts and they generally know the difference. I won't pretend that who they are isn't a culmination of who I am. It is...sort of. I love everything. Hell, I love everyone...people wise. I think everyone has the ability to be interesting. Everyone is special. Everyone has the ability, regardless of smarts, to be value add to the conversation. Nothing actually annoys me more than anyone acting like an opinion, whether I agree or not, has no value. All thoughts, opinions, are value add....especially those we don't agree with trying to silence another. Those ideas. Those concepts. Those analyses. They make us open our minds. Open ourselves. Realize how amazing each of our contributions are.
The sign of a open mind has always been the theater. The music. The arts in general. So it was no surprise...although admittedly I found it shocking....that my neighbors, one of them, told my son that he was "weird". When my son relayed this, I was a bit confused. I have lived my whole life thinking music touches everyone. Granted over the years I've become accepting over the fact that some people have no ability to appreciate any music that they don't personally find appealing. My ex husband hated rap. Granted at the inception. But still in his mind it wasn't an option to have rap CDs. Not that his opinion ever affected me. (You'd have to know me to get it.) To me, music is the entrance to everything we are, everything we hope to be, and more importantly, every lesson we pray our children learn, change and evolve with. Sadness, love, death, happiness, loss, gain, growing up, getting old, accepting who we are, allowing for who we aren't and still might never be....and then some. This is every musical note. Every word in a lyric, a chorus, a spoken word. Every song, every lyric, every poem set to words. They are conveying our feelings, our hopes and disappointments, our dreams and our losses. I'm always amazed by people who claim they don't get this music or that music. They all convey the same thing. Loss, gain, heart, hurt, pain, hated, love....pure emotion. How do some people completely ignore how music conveys how much we are alike?
So the neighbor told my son that he's weird...I was like...uh....how? The neighbor told him everyone is easily defined by what kind of music they listen to. Some dudes listen to rap. Easy to know them. Some guys listen to country or hard rock. Or dance or jazz or whatever. The neighbor had basically stereotyped that music and that defines them. Our choice in music defines us. Does it? I LOVE all music but opera. And admittedly there's some opera--like Bugs Bunny's version of the Barber of Seville-- that I adore. Music defines us? How?
Truth? The best rappers are into all kinds of music. The best rock musicians love all kinds of music. Don't doubt me. Hell look it up. There's an entire CD of Linkin Park and JayZ. Best album in the last 20+ years if you have an open mind. So much in common between a major rock band and a major rapper? Not possible? Only to the sad and shallow. The reality is that every art doesn't touch all of us. But given the right moment every single one of us can connect with even the art forms we have no ability to imagine giving us more. We gain the world from the most unexpected places. We should all be so lucky to see the world in someone else's eyes. Music and poetry are that gift. Music conveys emotion but lyrics, poetry, conveys even more. Who knew they could be combined? Just 100 years ago...Unspeakable. Go figure the naivete.
So my son. Cut from my cloth? My ex likes rock and country. He's broader minded than many. But he never understood my obsession with polka, classical, jazz, R&B, old school rock, blues, you name it. I listened even then. But...
The neighbor said to my son. "The music you listen to tells me who you are. How you think...you are weird. You listen to everything. I don't know what to think of you based' the music you listen to. One day it's rap. The next it's Sinatra."
YAY. People with depth have no definition. There is no simple definition of those that learn and accept others. We are complex, undefined by simple stereotypes and what kind of music we listen to. We listen to as much as we can still we can appreciate... not just those who would limit us to the small experience they've had. Life is an adventure. Music, in all its glory, is the key to the door some of us choose to miss
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