Not as a Stranger
Those who lead us into war are strangers to music. That part of them has died, or has been driven deep into hiding. The same can be said of others who manipulate people for their own profit by invoking the petty gods of commerce, religion, patriotism, and fear.
It is impossible to love life and not love music. It is also possible to murder and hate, and then to discover music and be cleansed by remorse.
Ironically, many musicians and poets are deaf to music. They claim to be devoted to their art, but all they hear, or want to hear, is the sound of their own hollow voices, or of cash registers ringing.
Many who are physically deaf are acutely aware of life�s harmonic vibration. They feel it in their thoughts and in their bones, and listen to life with their minds and bodies. In other words, they hear.
Silence, too, is a song. Music would not be music without it, just as life would not be life without sorrow.
Sorrow is not the opposite of happiness. It is at the very heart of happiness. Can a fruit be understood without its seed? Such is life. Such is music. Such are we.
April 11, 2006
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