I honestly wasn’t sure that I would write today. I didn’t know what I would write about, I wasn’t in the writing mood, and I didn’t feel like I had the time. I felt like I needed hours in the day and more time to relax, but the number of things on my to-do list continues to increase exponentially by the second. Being a musician, I found solace and comfort in music and today it led me to “Breathe” by India Arie.

Soul music is powerful. I once listened to all of her albums straight through in an afternoon and felt completely energized and capable afterward. “I Am Not My Hair,” “I Am Light,” “Beautiful,” and “There’s Hope.” All of her more popular songs drew me into her voice in an almost meditative state. Her music makes me feel like she’s the kind of person you’d want to tell all of your problems to or sit down and have a cup of coffee with. The strong emphasis on the guitar, references to Latin and African vibes as well as Stevie Wonder, and the transcendent quality of her music and lyrics all serve to remind me of the importance of preserving one’s own spirituality... aside from the fact that she states it over and over in every song.

“Breathe,” written in the aftermath of the Philando Castile and Alton Sterling shootings that ended in the loss of life for both sides of the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter conflict, accurately depicts Black Lives Master’s incessant need to humanize the black community and the situation surrounding our treatment in the U. S. Even if you disagree with the necessity of the movement or the validity of the issue, could you, as a human being, stomach the impact of watching several videos of people who look like you being shot because they look like you without experiencing some psychological distress? Remember that in this scenario the hypothetically you firmly believes this to be true regardless of whether your yourself actually believe it to be true. Think about it and tell me that it wouldn’t hurt you. I can address the validity of our movement with facts but even if I didn’t have facts and I was just immensely terrified for no reason, how could there not be more compassion in our country? Comment sections vilify us for being scared out of our minds and having the audacity to fight for ourselves like we truly believe our lives are on the line (For the record, we do believe our lives are on the line).

The dehumanizing nature of this country is validated every single time we reach out to our brothers and sisters in fear and tentative hope and they refuse to hear us. Every stereotype. Every comment. Every eye roll. Every smirk. We argue to hurt each other instead of help each other and Ms. Arie makes the message of peace plain and simple to understand in this song. “Breathe” was written to heal and help push each other towards empathy. In this piece, I specifically tried not to write as much about politics as I did about the actual song, but music is politics. It’s an appeal, an interaction, and an attempt to get a point across to an audience.

I’ll be honest and say that I needed this today. Ms. Arie provided what all musicians seek to provide: two to four minutes of emotional and spiritual connection between art and man so that man can finally. Just. Breathe.