Like I noted in the last blog post, music is a big part of my life. Well, today and the 9th are a pair of interesting days for me. Today, August 1st, is the birthday of the late-Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. The 9th is the day that he passed away, back in 1995. This morning, in my Facebook feed, I found a post from Mickey Hart – the awesome drummer, and all-around genius – in my Facebook feed. The title of the post is “Dear Jerry” and points out that Jerry was a catalyst for a lot of people discovering how music can touch nearly every aspect of their lives. The previous day, Mickey had posted a quote from Jerry that I re-shared to my wall:

You need music, I don’t know why. It’s probably one of those Joe Campbell questions, why we need ritual. We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it.  –Jerry Garcia

This is one of those quotes that you stumble across, and realize the potency of what is being said, and for me – how much it encapsulates what makes my life “GO”. Even when I am at work, I am playing music. Currently, I have my iTunes on a full-mix rotation. Its been playing as I am typing this. This morning I have heard Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead, Jewel, Fiona Davidson, Spiral Dance, and .38 Special. I play this type of rotation when I am in no particular musical mood. Usually, I have a particular artist in mind, and I focus on them. But music is always there.

When I walk, I typically have a large number of songs from a single artist stuffed on to my iPhone. Its the background music that I am wanting to listen to in order to help focus my mind on a single thought. Yes, I meditate when I walk. Its also one of the reasons I need to stop walking in my neighborhood, since this is a heavily urbanized area, and there’s always traffic around. Its fairly easy to come close to being hit by a car, even when you are not distracted by anything else.

Music permeates nearly every moment of my day. There’s always something on. Plus, I am looking into taking guitar lessons as well, so I can get back into playing music with my more musically inclined friends. That’s the first time I have had a serious desire to play music since March 20th in 1982 when I found out about the death of Randy Rhoads from the previous day. That’s the day I set my bass guitar down. And to be perfectly honest, I won’t be the greatest guitar player ever. In fact, I’ll likely be “ok” at my peak. But its not about being the absolute best, its about being able to share that music with my friends.

When you listen to a certain song, do you get the chills and thrills up and down your spine when you hear it?  When you know that this is the song that defines a specific moment in time – or that this song will always remind you of these musicians? Or that this song expresses this moment so perfectly? In my opinion, that’s part of what Jerry means in his quote about “magic and bliss” — where a certain song can literally define that moment for you forever. And when you hear that song, you are immediately transported to those feelings. I have a metric ton of these memories.

I know that there are folks who may not understand or agree on the importance of music. To be honest, that’s perfectly fine. This is something that definitely works for me. And something that is a very deep part of what and who I am. So, as Wall of Voodoo is reminding me about “Mexican Radio” – I’ll go ahead and close this post. Here’s to hoping that you’re having an excellent day, morning, evening, night – whatever.  🙂  /|\