LISTENING TO MUSIC

Back when I was a boy I remember hearing, every once and a great while, Latin music on the radio. I would hear the breaks when just the percussion instruments would play. To me it was a thrilling sound. Back then there were no records or tapes or CDs to buy - - you could only hear the music once, while it was playing. When it was done you had to wait until the next time something like it was played, perhaps months later. Back then the sound quality was poor. I don't remember that we listened to the radio all that much at our house yet I remember rhythmic syncopated music exciting me.

Now I can select from a wide variety of all types of music. If I have a recording I can play it over and over. By repetition I can learn it so well so as to know all the parts of it. I can know instantly if anything is different from another recording even if the voicing and arrangements are all the same. Now music performance is at our fingertips - - we may have it whenever we want: from a recording or from the radio or T.V. We are bound no longer to performance by live musicians, or to performing it for our own selves.

Why is it, then, that I don't listen more at home. I rarely ever do. Playing music distracts me from other things. With me it's one, or the other.

CHATTERBOXING

Once on the way into work I was having an imaginary conversation with someone. These people I “talk with” are usually people with some influence or importance in some area. I thought, “Why do I do this?” Am I wishing for some favor from them; do I want to gain their attention? Then I thought, “Here I am imagining a conversation with an imaginary person, who is not real, yet I do not pray to the Lord, who is real.”

Would it be a good thing for me to have these “conversations” with God instead? If I did this would it have a value to God? Would I be a chatter-box endlessly whining on about my problems and ideas and never leaving a space for God to respond?