MUSIC TO DRIVE BY
I had a thought about how wonderful music is to the ears, for the heart and the mood. I have found that a piece of music can lead me down a memory lane to a specific moment, or even to an entire event. It can instantly reproduce sorrow or humour, in fact any sense of emotion. I can go back to my childhood and remember a scene long forgotten just by listening to a piece of music.
Our family was a musical family, my mother played the piano and in the days of the big bands she would on occasion take over the piano to give the pianist a break, while my father had a tenor voice. The two together were a phenomenal couple and I recall many nights of hiding on the sidelines and listening to their musical parties. My mother wrote music together with her mother who was a very good violinist, and they had several musical pieces published.
However, there is a darker side to music. We are all aware of the background sound of a scary movie or a threatening storm. Perhaps a Jerry mouse might fear the sound of a Tom cat approaching with the deep pounding thud of feet getting closer. That is scary enough but what I am now thinking about is the effect of music on a driver of a car.
How many drivers are listening to their music on full blast in a car on a journey, short or long and driving to the tempo of the music. I am guilty of that and have found myself going down a long winding road, far too fast into the bends, to the tune of the Lone Ranger. A person becomes so involved in the music that the danger of the road is ignored. Or you may be listening to a romantic song from somewhere in your history of love stories that you become equally nostalgic and forget completely about the road. I have missed turns and had to drive several kilometres back because of going off into a musical trance while driving.
Sometimes I see ridiculous accidents and wonder how it was possible. I think I have just hit the nail on the head or perhaps the right note.