I sat on the stiff carpeted floor that covers my bedroom, sobbing uncontrollably in the dark so no one would know I was there. Constantly, my father's cracking voice echoed in my head.
“Your… grandpa’s cancer…is back.”
My eyes winced as if that could stop the memory from replaying in my head. Like maybe it wouldn’t be real.
“The doctors say there’s…there’s nothing they can do for him, his health is declining quickly…very quickly.”
My father’s voice hinting every sign he was about to cry. My dad was about to lose his father and I was about to lose a best friend.
This thought only made my stomach churn more and the tears hit the firm carpet even faster. I threw my head back and leaned against my bedroom wall in a seemingly unstoppable cry.
Then the clamoring of dishes stopped in the kitchen, all voices ceased. The house went silent. I could now hear the sound of the rain hitting the windowsill in an even four beats per measure. Soon, my breath became just as even as the soothing sound of the drops hitting the pane. And through the wall I could hear the beautiful key of C-major as Paul McCartney sang the ever so relevant lyrics, “Speaking words of wisdom. Let it be” I closed my eyes, one last tear fell and I relaxed as these two sounds lulled me to sleep against my bedroom wall.
Music is the world’s greatest healer.
Lazaro Arbos was born in Cuba with a severe speech impediment that has continued to define his life. But somehow when Arbos sings, the mesmerizing octaves transform into magic and his stutter vanishes. With this gift, he made it to the top six on the hit TV show "American Idol" season 12. How is this possible?
Scientists hypothesize that the predictable beats may help patients with this condition initiate speech and continue fluency. But science jargon can ruin what music really is -- moving, magical, medicine more miraculous than one may be aware of.
Ever think about your own pulse? Even the beat of our heart harbors a rhythm that we fight every day to keep steady. We live in a world surrounded by this moving force but these same components are within us from day one to our final seconds. 3.5 billion heat beats in an average lifetime, 60 to 100 beats per minute. Rhythm keeps us alive and functioning.
Fredrick Nietzche once wrote, "Without music life would be a mistake.”
Without music life would be more than a mistake, life would fail to exist.
Needless to say there are extraordinary and amazing and miraculous powers behind the eight octaves of a piano, the six strings of a guitar or simply the sound of rain as it clashes tin. According to the New York Times article "Why Music Makes Our Brains Sing," music can alter brain waves. It has been shown to increase the level of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which are linked to mood, perception and movement.
You see music is medicine beyond needles or pills or the liquid goo your mother would give you at the first sign of a runny nose.
It’s not invasive, it’s intransitive.
Beyond this music is personal. With hundreds of genres ranging from Alternative to Zydeco, billions of songs and thousands created just in the time it takes to read this, everyone can find some sort of sound pleasing to the vibration of their ear drums that brings them peace, happiness, motivation or clarity. This is why it is one of the only components that connect us to everyone else across the 7 seas and continents.
In 2004 the project Playing for a Change was created by Mark Johnson and Enzo Buono with “the belief that music has the unique ability to transcend social and geographical barriers.” Using a portable recording studio, these two men record musicians across the globe singing different interpretations of the same song. The end result is an inspiring mix of cultures in one perfect harmony.
“Throughout that process we learned that we can use music to connect the planet. In order to give back to them, we created Playing for a Change Foundation, which builds music schools around the world and then connects them together, so that kids in a school in Africa can play music with kids in the United States,” Co-Creator Johnson said.
Understand that this means music not only heals us personally but it helps remove the scars of genocide, famine and war that have divided our earth for centuries.
Though Don McClean suggested in his hit "American Pie" that music died with Buddy Holly, it is obvious that nothing could kill something so powerful. So as long as there is life and color and expression on this planet, there will be music. And as long as there is music, there will be healing.
