Your Daily Brush: Music, Memories, and Meaning
When you share your favorite music with another person, not only are you helping to spread joy, you are also promoting connection and making meaning that endures over time and space.
Dear Friends,
Music is an important focal point of the work of the WLF because of its numerous benefits to individuals and groups. Plus it is just plain beautiful and delightful - don’t you agree?
Music helps promote emotional health by helping calm anxious nerves. It can motivate and mobilize us. It can also help connect people. The list of benefits of music is long and volumes have been written about it.
Today, I would like to share with you a couple of versions of Take Five by Dave Brubeck, in memory of a former colleague and friend of mine, the late Dr. Keith Heller. (Here’s a link to a National Public Radio short article on the 65th anniversary of Take Five, which is considered to be among the most important jazz singles.)
I first met Keith when we were both working as pediatric dentists in a practice in rural Western Pennsylvania sometime around 1989. I worked there on Saturdays and he was there full-time. A few years later, we ran into each other in Washington State when he came to do a public health project and I was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Washington.
When we met again, he surprised me by saying that he went into public health because of my suggestion! I have no recollection of the conversation that led him in that direction. However, he reminded me that we once had a conversation in the clinic where we had met earlier. While there, he had shared with me that he was looking to expand his horizons and I had suggested he consider public health.
Along with that discovery, there was another surprise in store for me as well. That summer, we met up for a couple of field trips around the Seattle area. On one such field trip, he ended up playing a recording of Take Five, the jazz classic by Dave Brubeck.
As I am not a scholar of music, the details were lost on me, as he excitedly counted out the music in fives, (which is what made it groundbreaking back when it was first released.) However, here is what I remember nearly thirty years after he shared that music with me: Despite my lack of training in music, I liked it. And I noticed how Keith came alive sharing his joy for the music. He lit up as we listened to the music.
Sadly, Keith died at a relatively early age, as he was awaiting a heart transplant donor who did not materialize. I don’t think he was around to see this version of Take Five with Wynton Marsalis and musicians from Pakistan.
I got to thinking about Keith and Take Five because I just listened to this essay on music and memories by musicologist and scholar Dr. Joshua Berrett.
As human beings, we are blessed to have the capacity for thinking, feeling and making memories. And we are also blessed to have the gift of music. And together they combine into creating meaning and memories that transcend death and time.
I still grieve the untimely passing of Keith and miss him. At the same time, the memory of his sharing Take Five, fills me with joy and gratitude for having known him.
Life is at times inevitably sad. And there are also times when life inevitably offers us the possibility of joy; there is the joy of music and then there is the joy of music multiplied when shared with others.
Rx: What is music that makes you come alive and touches your soul?
I invite you to share it with your family and friends. Listen to it not just in passing like background music during a conversation. Rather listen to it the way Keith shared one of his favorites with me: Make time and space for a few minutes and sit together and consciously pay attention to the music. Allow yourselves to enter into the richness of the moment together.
Here’s the thing: It’s not just about the music. It is about the people and the creation of lifelong memories.
You are also invited to share your favorite music here with us! When you do so, not only do you expand our horizons, you also help us forge new connections and create meaning. And that, my friends, is one of the keys to mental hygiene.
To your health!
