The Power of Music

I love music. Who doesn't? I can think back to my childhood, to certain songs that made me feel a certain way. Lyrics that made me feel everything from happiness, sadness, confusion, confidence, and even fear. Even today, a song can change my whole outlook on either my day or my life. How in that moment of singing out those lyrics and listening to that beat, you can either instantaniously be uplifted or brought down. For me, this is a wonderful, however short lived, feeling. You turn off the radio, go about your day, and that's that. For Mary, music is everything. Mary is a walking, talking fact machine on music and artists of all genres and decades. Instead of watching cartoons all the time, she watches the cable Music Choice channel. Every decade, every genre. Mary loves it all, and obsessively watches youtube videos of songs with the lyrics flashing on the screen, she wants to know all the words. If she's not doing that, she's plugged into her ipod. How she can know what artist died tragically in a car crash, leaving behind a two year old, but not be able to add 1+1, is beyond me. Believe me, I have tried to get her to listen to all sorts of math songs, and different musical math videos, to no avail. They simply do not have the same affect. I can't imagine how she feels when she can't understand something, but I believe, that when Mary listens to music, she gets that feeling, and to her everything makes sense. It doesn't matter if it is a song with meaning, or a song that just has a funky beat, Mary can make sense of it, and wants to hold onto that feeling all the time. There have been countless studies on how music affects the brain. I have also read about studies that state we all have parts of our brian that we just don't access all the time, and people like Mary are just using the parts we don't. I'm glad her obsession is with music, something that maybe, can help her sort out feelings. I love to hear her sing, especially when she has her earphones in, and can't hear herself. It sounds awful, but it is music to my ears. If you are a fan of early 80's hair bands, click on this link. http://youtu.be/ZoS0DGrovCs This to me, says it all.