NaNoWriMo 2011, The Penultimate Day, 57328 Words

I am not nearly as obsessed with music as my character, Holden is. But the two of us both understand something. Music is a mood alterer and an agent of time traveling. There is a reason sports arenas play music. There is a reason movies have soundtracks. Just imagine what it would be like to watch one of your favorite films without music. Dialogue can only do so much (though sometimes, with the right words, can be intensely powerful all on its own). There are books and books that discuss the affects of music on the brain. Here's a handy link to an amusing article: 7 Insane Ways Music Affects the Body (According to Science).

I've had songs take me back to memories I'd long forgotten, make me remember people (boys) I don't think about anymore. It can make me melancholy. It can inspire. It can make me feel fantastic. Some songs, if they catch me unawares, can knock me flat on my back. I've never needed drugs as long as I've had music.

I remember a difficult time in college when I was really hurting and I would walk around campus with my headphones on or I'd go to the music building and find an open practice room with a piano and play. I was never very good, but just the act of creating music made me feel better.  It still does.

Sometimes when I have my music library on shuffle (with its tens of thousands of songs), it feels a bit like playing Russian Roulette. Which song is going to be the bullet that knocks me down? How many songs will pass by without any impact?

"Diamonds, roses, I need Moses to cross this sea of loneliness, part this red river of pain."

           from Moses by Patty Griffin