Today’s point to ponder is a quote from Hans Christian Anderson: “Where words fail music speaks”. Five simple words, yet so powerful in meaning.
In times of stress or extreme emotions, first pray. Then find a calming piece of music to concentrate on, allowing it to calm you, allowing it to relieve or rather temper the stress within.
Does this work? Let me tell you of a time in my life that I was working as a supervisor in a plastics plant on a 12-hour shift. Now, I lived about 50 miles from the plant in a different town, in a different state. The drive to work took an hour on a good day.
As a supervisor, I had to arrive at least 30 minutes early to get updates from the night supervisor and stay 30 minutes after the shift to update the oncoming supervisor. Added all together, that made for a 15-hour workday.
The drive, on back country roads and through small, sleepy Georgia towns, with the stresses of the workday pressing on my mind, made for a difficult trip home. Sometimes, very tired and weary, trying to keep my five speed, AM/FM radio, Chevy pickup between the white lines, when there were white lines, became very difficult. My tired mind would wander, thinking of the day’s work and what might lay ahead with the family when I got home.
Now I love early Rock and Roll, sometimes blaring to the highest volume the radio would put out. But AM radio back then was iffy on those back country, Georgia roads, undependable at best. So one day, I tried to find an FM station that would stay with me.
Scanning the dial, I came upon a Public Radio station, state wide broadcast. So I gave it a try. Did I say I like early Rock and Roll? Well, that’s not what I found. Classical music! Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and the like. And as I listened, I began to notice music scores from movies I had seen, good calming music, even the overpowering theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a science fiction movie no less. And Beethoven wrote it years before “movies” were ever conceived.
I continued to listen, remembering at times how my “Glee Club” teacher, Ms. Register, would introduce a few of the classics to us, without much success; Rock and Roll was our taste.
But, this was different. This music was speaking to me, calming me, relieving my stress. Suddenly, the drive home became easier. I became calmer. This music spoke to me; “where words failed Music spoke.”
So this quote has a particularly special meaning for me. It helped get me through a tough time. It helped relaxed me after a long and stressful workday. It made the drive home enjoyable.
And yes, still today I love to hear beautiful, peaceful and sometimes thunderous classical music. It speaks.
But don’t forget, I still love early Rock and Roll. After all, I grew up as it grew up. And yes, it speaks to me as well.
Just Pondering…