This week I had the great pleasure of witnessing a masterful, musical feast. Do you know the feeling of reverberations moving through the floor, into your feet, up your legs and into the rhythm of your beating heart? Do you know the wonder of a note, bursting forth, cutting through the silent atmosphere and spilling over, into, around, beneath, and among the awestruck faces? Might you recognize the marriage of strings and brass, air and movement, sound and spirit?Music.
There are few things in this broken world that stir the whispers of eternity in my spirit the way music does.
This afternoon I received an email with a link to a video by a group called Playing for Change.
Playing for Change began in 2005 with the mission of bringing peace to the world through music. The idea is romantic and simple, and I think it's really rather beautiful.
The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world. -playingforchange.com
I used to think music had to be "Christian" to be meaningful to me. I do not believe that any longer. I believe that music does transcend boundaries-- emotional and spiritual and literal. I believe art has a unique power to reach around the walls we have built up around ourselves. I believe this because I believe you and I are unique creations, crafted from the mind of the Great Creator, and I believe when we create music and poetry and paintings we are doing so in his image. And it's good, whether I believe it or not.
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. -Leopold Stokowski
2 comments:
Hopey, How wonderful to read your blog, hear your beautiful heart and catch a breath of fresh air. Write on! xxoo Annie
To begin at the end: I love the image of music as a type of "feast" for the ears. You are so right.
When I listen to music I do "get full." And, when I go to long without good music, I "get cranky" and have "hunger pains."
Daily, I try to understand the communication between individuals works. In particular, I think about how creative individuals can create powerful emotions in people in short amounts of time. How does Susan Boyle produce an overwhelming emotional reaction in millions of people? Why do we love when people like Susan Boyle or a kid coming home from the dentist?
I haven't heard a perfect explanation yet, but your thoughts concerning music provide a interesting visual image to help consider how people consume media and why people consume media.
Maybe people are hungry for something that music (and youtube videos) offers us. Maybe, we email Susan Boyle all across the internet not simply because it is fun, but because we're hungry for the type of hope her video provides. I don't know? But, what I do know is:
I love the imagery as music as a "feast." Something about that image rings profoundly true with me as well.
-joejones
(iagreewithjoe.com)
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