Was thinking a bit about music in the last day or two, for one reason and another, and it reminded me to ask: am I unique in the following, or does anyone else have it? I think it might be its own subltle form of oscillating burnout - or maybe a way that my nervous system steps in to minimise the chances of that.
Basically, what I'm talking about is a swing between two states (maybe 'extremes' is too strong a word), where on one day music features heavily - there's an appetite for it, you might revisit old stuff or try out new stuff and your day is filled with intermittent listening to songs or instrumentals - and the next, there's almost a music hangover, where you just need to not hear any (or at least very little) for the next 24 hours at least.
In scenario one, I sometimes reach a moment - a feeling - that's something like 'if I could just be hearing this sequence of notes, or voice, or specific chord change forever, I'd never again doubt in the divine'. In scenario two, I don't disown the previous state, but I just can't face the sensory intake required to get there that was perfectly appealing the previous day. I need to decompress from music's beguiling but complex effect. On those days, I instead focus mainly on the classic plainness of the spoken word - the news, a podcast, an audiobook, a YouTube video of a crime interrogation or something.
And yet... some part of me recognises that it would be a sad thing to take one's leave of this world on a non-music day. A heart attack or car accident or something, and one of the many synchronous final thoughts passing through the last dying neurons might be a regret that there wasn't one more melody on the day one shuffled off.
It's a lottery for me which way that will go. Anyone here have that? Or for the majority, would a single day without (intentionally encountered) music be an unthinkable prospect?
Thinking about this also makes me realise that for each of us, there will be a last song, tune, film, television episode, book (maybe partially read) - whether those things be final new things, or a final re-visit to old friends, so to speak. Also, the unpreparedness each of us might have for what a truly last thought will be: something profound? Heart and mind united in gratitude and peace? Or just the random un-requested flicker of an old advertisement jingle or something and a feeling of 'yeah, that figures...' before the lights go out.
Anyway, happy Friday :-)
