The Hazard Chronicles

For the beginning of today's post I want to start by pasting something in that I wrote a couple of years ago. If you don't want to read it, then go ahead and scroll down to the page break:

When I was 14 years old I discovered music. It changed my life.

Before that time I was definitely exposed to music. I had taken piano lessons for years (more on that next week), and I had played the trumpet and the French horn in the school marching band. There was often background music in our home as well, although it was almost exclusively soft religious or instrumental music. We kicked up the tempo a little bit around Christmas time with the Osmonds (now that family was wild!), but by and large, I would say that my musical upbringing was…tame.

And then my family moved. We moved to Rexburg, Idaho which, as you can probably guess, was about as different a place as you could imagine from my California home. During this move I came across a box of cassette tapes that my dad had saved from his days as a missionary in Japan. I took these tapes and I hid them in my room on my closet shelf. At night time, after I was sure nobody was watching, I would covertly take out my new Walkman (for listening to religious talk-tapes of course) and listen to these newfound treasures.

Most of the tapes contained correspondence between my dad and his brother, who was also serving a church mission at the time in the Philippines. The back-and-forth between these two brothers gave me worlds of insight into my father, and I am extremely glad that I listened to them. The tape that changed my life, however, was different. Rather than a date scrawled on the tiny sticker across the top of the tape, this one was labeled with a single word written in all capital letters- BOSTON.

I curiously put the cassette into the Walkman, wondering when my Dad’s family had ever visited the East coast. What I heard instead totally blew me away. The music coming through my headphones was like nothing I had ever heard. The first three tracks blended seamlessly into an epic rock-and-roll tour de force. And then, with the fourth track, came one of the most emotionally, heart-wrenchingly beautiful blends of guitar and vocals that I had ever heard (never mind that electric guitars were a foreign species in our home to begin with).The experience I had that night was nothing short of transcendent for my fourteen-year-old self.

It is only in retrospect that I *think* I can describe what happened to me that night. The best way I can understand it is that I started to learn a new language. Or rather, I recognized this language for the first time as one that was a part of me. Different from other languages, though, music was not spoken with words to be filtered through an imperfect and prejudiced mind. Sure, words are fabulous at explaining ‘things,’ and a person who has a mastery over them can even, at times, describe certain ‘ideas’. But words will always fall short when it comes to communicating ‘emotion’.

I do not believe that we feel emotion with our minds, but instead with our hearts, our intelligences, our divine sparks- our souls. Whatever you want to call it though, words are, at their very best, hit-and-miss when it comes to stimulating this vital part of our human natures. And what’s more is that I have found that most of the important things in life- things like love, faith, fear, reverence, solidarity or passion- are best understood, not with our logical minds, but with this deep emotional part of ourselves which words can’t touch.

And that is where music comes in. In music, words are secondary. Ironically, this makes them all the more poignant-for the words, if needed at all, can bypass the mind entirely, being carried by the music directly to the heart of the listener. The words are then delivered as a perfectly packaged offering to the soul.

Ever since I first recognized the language of music for what it was, I have allowed it to fill my life with its many varieties- there is a place for all of it. Granted, that certain musicians are more adept, and certain genres are better than others at conveying specific ideas, but they all speak to me- to us, I believe- as human beings. And as I have done this I have found a source of inspiration, enrichment, and growth that has made me into the person I am today...

****************************************************

So- why did I post this little thought? Because, I still love music just as much as ever, and especially when that music is found in a live venue. I love watching skilled musicians who seem to enter into another world when they pick up their instruments and just become lost in the music they are making. There is something extremely compelling and almost spiritual about it. Whatever it is, I love it. And so I try my best to get at least a weekly dose of live music, usually with Rachel along as a partner to enjoy fine dining and/or good conversation with. Truly, this is one of the finer things in life that I am privileged to partake of on a pretty regular basis. 

Rachel and I at a Blues establishment we went to last week. We will definitely be back.

On that note- I'll let the world know how disappointing it was that Alice In Chains is coming to Spokane and sold out in one day, leaving me and a lot of other people empty handed. We'll see what Craigslist has to offer though- perhaps there is still hope (if you are reading this and have tickets then feel free to contact me through this blog).

Changing gears a little bit, I want to go back and post a bunch of pictures that Rachel had on her phone (Rachel's pictures usually don't make it onto the blog). Some of these are recent- some are not. Either way, it will give you a glimpse into our lives.

Enjoy :)

For our weekly family dessert night Evelyn made leprechaun hats this week to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. 

The leprechaun hats were quickly devoured.

This was last week- we went to the children's museum in Spokane. This is one our our kids' favorite places.

I'm not sure when this was taken- about a week ago maybe. It just a picture of Evelyn on a normal day, about to go to school. (And a dirty diaper in the background)

This was taken sometime in the past few weeks. We are trying to get more pictures of Lindsey on here. She is definitely a "youngest child", and the lack of pictures is, sadly, evidence of this fact. 

Rachel with some of her friends at a Pinterest party that she hosted a while back.

This was a long time ago- like last Summer. Evelyn took an art class and in it they learned how to "Zen-tangle." This is Evelyn's creation.

Evelyn wanted me to do a Zen-tangle as well. This is what I came up with. I think it's pretty good.

Just Addy. I have no idea when this was taken.

This was semi-recent. The kids like to arrange random things to make "art." Some of the stuff they come up with is pretty ingenious.

The kids and the stuffed Animals they got for Christmas. These have become some of their favorite toys.

I didn't take this picture. Rachel didn't take this picture. It looks like we have an anonymous budding photographer in our midst.