How to Make Music Sound Better

You can't force the lock and you must not rush, because once you walk through this door it closes behind you and disappears. One half of the key is given freely and heartbreak forges the other half. Then, on a day like any other, you'll get in your car. Twist the key, turn on the radio and you will hear music in a way that you never have before.

I hope it is "Silver Springs" by Fleetwood Mac for you. That was the song that delivered the knowledge to me. I was cruising up an onramp when Stevie Nicks began to sing. Nodding along, I put on my left blinker and merged onto the freeway. Then the lyrics hit me like a hammer.

you'll never get away from the sound of the woman who loves you

Goosebumps ran along my arms. I gripped the wheel and a face thousands of miles and years away smiled and wavered in the windshield. Sixty-five miles per hour, on the freeway, and a song was driving me back to a different place with a different car and a different girl.

Music will do that for you when you have had your heart broken. The words and the notes echo off of memory in a way that makes the song strike a different chord. Perhaps 'better' is not an apt description of the change in the sound. A better word might be truer.

Have you noticed how people nod their heads along to the beat? The difference between 'better' and 'truer' lies in what they nod along to. If they nod because they like the song, they are in a different category than the person who nods because they agree with the artist. In fact, as I write this, I wonder if there are many other heart-wrenching experiences that open up the door to listening to the musician making the music.

After experiencing loss I felt a deeper appreciation for songs that dealt with grief. It is equally true that travel broadened my appreciation for where music from other countries was coming from. However, my eyes have not widened in response to lyrics for these reasons.

What separates heartbreak from other heart-wrenching experiences is that a broken heart changes your future and your past. The process of healing is also a process of growth. Slowly, as time goes on, you become different than who you were when the other half of your heart was never returned to you. The past itself shifts before your eyes and becomes something different, as girlfriend resolves into ex-girlfriend, and finally just a name to remember her by. It is the new sound in the song that can only be heard when something is new within you.

That is my interesting fact about being human. Music sounds better after you get your heart broken. Whether you break it yourself or have it broken by someone else is of little consequence. What matters is the way that a song sounds to you when it is sung.

Time cast a spell on you but you won't forget me

Today I dwell on what sort of spell is cast. Is it an enchantment when we are in love and an illusion when love has gone, or is it the other way round? A little red drum inside my chest keeps the time to my thoughts on this question. I do not know the answer. I'll have to keep listening.