Tuesday, July 6

Of Listening and Reading

Crying in the office is now my official pastime.

As you all know by now, I'm probably one of the biggest cyberloafers out there. And so I was poring over YouTube, listening to songs, watching videos: Unsent by Alanis Morissette, then Not As We still by Alanis, followed by Do What You Have to Do by Sarah McLachlan. You get the drift, it's emo redux version God knows what.

And then I clicked on I Will Remember You by Sarah McLachlan. Beautiful song, right? But what got me was one of the comments:

Alexias030692 (6 days ago)

I'm a 12yr old boy and my big sis who is 20yrs old left early this morning to the airport to fight the war in Iraq ='( I couldn't sleep last night 'cause I was so devistated so I went into her room and woke her up. I couldn't take it anymore and started crying in her arms. She held me and rocked me gently and softly sung me this song until I finally fell asleep. So now whenever I hear this song, I think of her and see her face =) I know she'll be back home soon. I love you, 'big sissy'!!

Cue. Tears. Now.

I know, I'm such a cry baby. But isn't it amazing how music anchors emotions and how each of us could feel what someone we don't even know feels? Regardless of where you live, who you are or what you do, there is an unseen thread that binds us. There's a divine weaver that allows us to tap into that collective experience, that collective pool of emotions that to my mind reminds us of how it's really like to be human, hardships and all.

Pretty much how I feel when I bloghop from one post to another. It's the mirrored self, the mirrored experience. And it's about finding that thread of solidarity that someone out there feels much the same way you do... and then suddenly, things are not as bad as they seem :)

17 comments:

  1. Try listening to these songs just before daybreak. Hope its melodies sway you the way it sways me...

    All the time.

    Billie Myers - Kiss The Rain
    Ben Folds Five - Brick
    Five for Fighting - Easy Tonight
    Mazzy Star - Into Dust
    Paula Cole - I Don't Want To Wait
    Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
    Cranberries - Linger
    Tori Amos - 1000 Oceans

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  2. that comment made me cry a bit. macho ako pre. kaya a bit lang. LOL

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  3. on my list would be could've been by tiffany and some good things never last by barbra.
    dami pa yan kaso happy mood ako ngayon.

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  4. oh what will the world be like without music...
    PM Dawn's "I'd Die Without You" and esp
    Luther Vandross's "Dance With My Father" always makes me wna bawl like a lil girl hehe :P

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  5. King of Anything by Sara Bareilles dahil iritable ako ngayon

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  6. @Mu[g]en: i love brick and i love linger. but my ultimate fave is paula cole! :)

    @Nimmy: hahaha, konting tears lang talaga. lol

    @paci: yey to happy mood :)

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  7. @soltero: oo nga, dance with my father. sus, umaalis talaga ako 'pag naririnig ko iyan. hindi ko kaya :P

    @orallyours: try listening to road to dead by paula cole bilang iritable ka. hehe :p

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  9. There's a certain comfort that comes from discovering that one is not in absolute solitude going through these things. How you would read other bloggers able to cope and be rebirthed after bouts of melancholy, and how you'd wish it would be the same for you. That it is possible, and the spectrum is kaleidoscopic.

    Things don't always turn out the way we hope for. Only because in this waltz of hearts, we find that the slightest off beat can throw the whole segue into disintegration.

    Music have always been by solitary companion, a salve that echoes the travails my heart would trudge. The movie Nick and Nora's Endless Playlist comes to mind.

    These days, I particularly like Come Home, a collaboration of One Republic and Sara Bareilles, and The Man Who Can't Be Moved by The Script.

    I must agree with your last paragraph. It encapsulates everything that I seek when I read other bloggers' outpourings. Emotion distilled into words, drawn across a page. Bleeding into my eyes, and moving as if I was there. Or that it was me.

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  10. thanks red, as always, for your insights. oh, and i love the man who can't be moved :)

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  11. Sarah M lulls me to sleep. She has one of the most relaxing voices the world over. I'd agree with Mugen with his top daybreak melodies, they're love love.

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  12. hehe. hi emman, thanks for dropping! :)

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  13. te i swear im a fan of sarah. do what you have to do! gosh. try listening to Regina Spec's Laughing With. todo tears ako kanina

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  14. sige teh, i will listen to that. hehe

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  15. this song gives me goosebumps. it's wonderful how it was able to help that little boy.

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  16. ako i love to see a movie that can make me cry!i love crying too!LOL

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