Music

Over the years, my taste in music has changed dramatically in some respects, and stayed the same in others. I never liked what others did, and I still don't. "Popular" music and I never really hit it off. However, much of the music I liked when I was littler has worked its way out of my life, as has much of the music I liked in middle school. Most of that, I'll admit, was music that my older brother listened to. Because he liked it, I liked it too. Now I've found my own taste.

It's impossible to pick a favorite song, but one of them has to be Wild Squall by the Sea Dogges. It's such a hauntingly beautiful song and has a way of invoking all ranges of emotion. I connect to several fantastic people and memories. One of them is driving into Horseshoe Canyon with my dad. It's one of our favorite camping places, and the stars were coming out above us. We played this song several times in a row and sang it. It also reminds me of singing it around a campfire at the Primitive Skills Rendezvous and Knap-In that we go to. I've been going there for longer than I can remember, and it's like another home to me. Sitting around the fire with my second family making music with them is one of my favorite memories. They actually asked me to sing it several more times. The last memory I associate with that song is probably my most vivid and personally important to me. Before my best friend left for National Guard training for 7 months, we had one last really awesome day. We hung out at my dad's house until about 2 in the morning, and spent a lot of that time listening to, singing, and discussing music. I vividly remember this song coming on, and singing it with him. He's one of the most important people in my life, and this is one of those times I remember with absolute crystal clarity.

I admire the music of Enya in particular because her music has such a unique feel. It has this smooth, pulsing rhythm that just knocks you back and carries you away like an ocean tide. It never fails to give me goosebumps, and all of her work is just so beautiful and otherworldly.

Without music, my world and life would be much bleaker and quite simply lifeless. Music brings color to the world, and expresses things that words can't. Hardly an hour goes by that I don't listen to music, and when I'm not listening to music I'm singing it. It makes me think like little else does, and offers ideas and inspiration and peace. My own sanity and likely the health and safety of those around me would be compromised without music.

My closer friends do listen to some of the same kinds of music that I do. With some of them, it's because I made them listen to a certain band and they fell in love with it just like me, or vise versa. With others, I think the answer is slightly less straightforward. I'm not a people-person, and I'm not prone to making close friends quickly or easily. They say your vibe attracts your tribe. Those with the vibe of my particular tribe all seem to have a similarly odd taste in music. The people I find myself attracted to as friends all share my style.