Since Valentine's Day is this week, I have been thinking about love. I heard a good show about it recently, and I have been reading several things that also made me think about love. I even think about playing music and even music itself maybe being some form of love abstractly.
I heard a really good show on love on NPR's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" over the weekend. Actually the show episode was titled "Redefining Romance," (you can listen to it here if you'd like - http://www.ttbook.org/book/redefining-romance) with segments on several topics, but the segments that got me thinking were specifically about love - the segment "Love 2.0" and the segment "Asexuality."
Love 2.0 was a scientific explanation of love that called it a micro moment of connection when we have a momentary mutual concern for another. This even includes neuro-firings becoming synchronized, and also gestures and biochemical reactions becoming synchronized. That's a really cool thing, and it thrills me to think that there is so much going on beyond what we can feel and think. And of course this is not just romantic love, but the love we feel for a good friend or even someone we meet on the street briefly. I would even extend this to our pets and maybe inanimate objects we have an affection for in some way - things, places, etc.
The Asexuality segment talked about people who feel attraction and love for another and don't feel the need for physical love. That got my brain reeling as well with all kinds of ideas. I always wondered what it would be like to be separated from the desires of the body and be purely emotional and intellectual and spiritual with another person. I do feel like I have been that way with close friends from time to time.
My reading on after-death experiences also mentions an importance of how much we loved in life - not as a judgement of how well we did in life, but a goal to pursue. A great number of people who die and are brought back to life experience a state where they are asked if they loved whenever they had the opportunity, and they are presented with examples of when they did love and when they could have loved more. That's a pretty practical and exciting thing to consider - that we should love at every opportunity. I am trying to make this a daily practice in my life.
And this also makes me think about playing music. I think that musicians experience some kind of connection that is akin to love through our mutual admiration of each other and complete rhythm and soul link to a song we're sharing and playing together. It's hard to explain the symbiotic relationship that you establish with other musicians when we play together. It takes a while, but in my life it has been as deep as any other bond I've had with another person. And maybe that is because music is more than mathematical patterns and beautiful melodies, maybe it is actually love as well.
So I don't know if all of this leaves me with any epiphanies about life and love, but it sure makes my head spin in a good way. What do you think of all these ideas?
I'd better move on before I come up with more ways to look at love.
What am I up to this week?
I'm doing several Valentine's Day shows for different facilities this week. I won't tell you about them, but I want you to be aware that I have 2 or 3 gigs every day doing this.
Friday night - Valentine's Day - I'll be playing at the La Veta Inn 6-9ish for the diners and maybe dancers. This should be a special night, and barring a snowstorm I hope we get a lot of folks out to share in some love songs and yummy food and romance. Please come out if you can!
I'd better run. I have lots of thinking to do about love.
Best,
Tom
Details this week:
Who: Tom Munch
What: playing & singing
Where: La Veta Inn, 103 W. Ryus Ave, La Veta. 719-742-3700
When: Friday, February 14, 6-9 pm
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