I woke up this morning knowing that it was going to be a yucky day and as I look out my window, I realize the only thing that is in sync in my world at this very moment is that the outside looks just like the inside. It’s gray out there. Gloom and doom. I look within and it’s just as full of gloom and doom there.  My pain is absolutely through the roof and it never fails…when my pain levels rise, my overall emotional well-being seems to plummet into a downward spiral…moving rapidly into a very dark abyss with no ladder, no jagged edges, no rope…absolutely nothing to hold on to or to help pull myself back out. It’s truly a lonely place. Not because I am lonely, but because I cut myself off from everyone and everything. Why do I do that? I don’t know. Maybe it is because I am afraid my negativity will be contagious. I don’t want anyone else to feel as bad as I do. That’s the only thing I can figure.

In 1697, William Congreve wrote The Mourning Bride. An excerpt:

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I’ve read, that things inanimate have mov’d,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform’d,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
‘Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv’d the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg’d
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?

The Mourning Bride can be attributed to a couple of famous quotations that you have heard although most often these quotations are really, in fact, misquotations. From this particular excerpt, “Music hath charms to sooth the savage beast.” is quite obviously a misquotation once you have read the original. In this same play, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” has also been misquoted. The original quote was actually “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”

Well, there is your English Lit lesson for the day. My point is this…heaven may not have a rage like love to hatred, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned and music may have charms to sooth a savage breast, but I, for one, know that music also has an unparalleled ability to sooth the savage beast within me.

When I’m down and I am in enormous amounts of pain…whether that be physical or emotional pain or even a combination of both…I can load up my iTunes or plug into my iPod Touch Me Not…turn the tuneage up WAY loud and for a moment, I can escape reality. I can listen to Mark Knopfler and for a moment, I am able to remember that there should be laughter after pain…there should be sunshine after pain…these things have always been the same…so why worry now?

 

Advertisement