twenty-three

Soft picking of a guitar begins, slowly meandering along, becoming an interlude. Each note weaves into the next, each word bleeds out from the last. In and out, like deep breaths, an outpouring of story, of fact and fiction, of feeling and faith. It seems like chance that these words would play off one another as they do, evoking emotions and answering the questions that gave them life.

It repeats – over and over – pattern layered upon pattern, forming this auditory experience. Three or four notes. Just three or four notes – but their presence – their life – is filling the whole room. Mathematics, physics, brain matter, biology, and spirit combining, melding, overlapping, complementing….creating.

Cords, cables, jacks, headphones, speakers, stop, start, repeat. A soft buzz in the left channel. The reverberation of a string just slightly out of tune. A cough. A scratch. All giving way to harmony. Imperfections fading as our brains fill in the space. Putting all the jumbled pieces, the timbre, rhythm, tempo, pitch all together. Knowing the sounds. Soaking them in. Recognizing their shape. Wrapping up in their warmth.

The melody travels along. It leads to a place far away from the steering wheel, away from the desk chair, away from the cold streets. At once it draws towards somewhere foreign, somewhere unexpected and unpredictable, but at the same time, somewhere that feels like home. The rules of the song are there, directing the journey. Where each step leads is unknown, but the destination is surprisingly familiar.

How can one song do so much to us?

I gave you my life and more
From sadness to sunshine I’m yours.

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