Reseeding
Hi. I am still here.
It is refreshing to take a break from writing. I have also been taking a break from music. Exposure to things for too long makes it hard to focus, and adding some distance helps snap them back into view. It is like how gardeners fence off grassy areas in the summer. People have been tramping over the grass, slowly grinding the lawn to dirt as their feet trace the same shortest route. The gardeners rope it off, and resow the lawn with that oddly unnatural looking blue stuff. Within a week the dirt is emitting beautiful green tongues of grass, and the lawn is a lawn again.
And here I am, mental seeds resown and starting to sprout. After not listening to music for a fortnight, I went for a run yesterday and listened to Ryabov’s Symphony no. 4. I wanted to listen to the last movement of Shostakovich 15 as well, but my legs decided to not provide the extra twenty minutes of running time.
After an absence the music sounds so fresh. When I have been listening to stuff over and over again it wears tracks into me like the soles of shoes wear tracks into turf. You become so familiar with the music that it starts to lose its meaning. This is true with many sensory things. When I walk the familiar route into work I am on autopilot, not noticing the scenery around me. When I do the same walk after having been out of town for a while I notice each tree; the rocks arranged in the gorge; the old hydroelectric plant built into the cliff-face; the undergrads in their short skirts…
Well, okay, no matter how jaded I am I always notice that last one.
Change is good, variation is healthy. Taking a step back and pausing for a bit lets you regroup and disconnect from the biases that familiarity breeds. Instead of walking over that same dirt path you wait outside the fence for a while. Eventually, you break the barrier and feel the full, fresh grass beneath your feet.
