Music

Music

Music is very important to me. Always has been. As a child I remember playing Beatles singles (45 RPMs) over and over on my phonograph, (which was one step more advanced than the kind you had to crank up.) I taught myself the famous Four Questions of Passover in Hebrew “Ma Nistana” from an album (LP) my parents had. I desperately wanted to play the piano and sat hour after hour trying to play “Lean on Me” by sound on my cousin’s piano before settling for learning “Windy” on some lame-ass organ we had in our house.
As a teenager, I embarrassed myself one day by singing at the top of my lungs to a Barbra Streisand album wearing big heavy headphones while, unbeknownst to me, my sister’s friends were over. One of them still reminds me of that mortifying moment. (Alan B.). My first boyfriend and I fell in love over the lyrics to the first KISS album that he transcribed and put in a folder that I STILL have.
My second husband and I were big into music. One of us would sing a lyric or two to a song unconsciously and then it’d be in the other one’s head for the day not realizing where it had come from. He played guitar. For my birthday, he learned to play a Garth Brooks song (a big deal because he was not a country music fan) and sang it to me as a present. Short of diamonds and my kids, it probably was one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received.
As I got older and after my second divorce when I was busy raising kids, working and managing a home, my life became sort of devoid of music. (Looking back now, those were dark times.) That is until the advent of the iPod. (Thank you Steve Jobs and Apple.) As I loaded up my Shuffle (being wary of technology and not wanting to commit to a full-sized Nano) my interest in exercise was rekindled. As I listened to my play list, I went from walking to running. As I lost weight from running, sex suddenly seemed important again. Now, whenever I’m stressed or stuck, I reach for my iPod and in minutes, my stress dissipates, my mind expands and I’m transported to another dimension where romance thrives and my SEALs are real. (LOL)
Recently, I saw an excerpt from an article in Live Science October 15, 2008 called the Amazing Power of Music. Briefly it was about sport psychologist Costas Karageorghis who used music during a London marathon to help athletes excel. It went on to say that there are many links between the amazing power that music has over our minds and bodies, which include killing pain, reducing stress, improving your brain and changing how we experience life.
And I thought, that’s why I did it. That’s why each of my chapters in the Sexy SEALs Series starts with music. Because music sets the mood. It removes the obstacles to our emotional lives. Basketball coach Red Auerbach said “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." And I think he’s right.
Now I’ll end with two quotes I found that made me laugh. Enjoy!
"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing." - Louis Armstrong
"I can't listen to Wagner that much. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland." - Woody Allen
Sue Reddy Silverman

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