Music/Appreciation

Yesterday evening I was invited to a little gathering at Tim and Lily's. They live on the other side of the art gallery from me, not a far walk at all. The theme of the party, besides an opportunity to sample delectable treats such as masa cakes, fresh vegetables, brie and homemade chocolate mousse, was for everyone to bring their favorite song to play.

Trying to pick your one favorite song is kind of a nightmare scenario for music aficionados. The very idea of selecting one tune before all others can be paralyzing. But with music so often relegated to background noise or informational "ones and zeros" (as they say), having an active listening party was a great idea. People played some great songs, all of which Tim is compiling onto a disc. And music goes down so well with several glasses of red wine.

As I left that night, I thought about Kansas City versus Chicago, where I just got back from. There's sort of a classic pattern middle-class American lives follow, from college town to big city and eventually back to the suburban origins we sprang from. I generally think of the "big city" phase as taking place somewhere cool like NY, Chicago or San Francisco, but for some of us this just isn't practical.

The other day I looked at all the stuff piled around my apartment -- books, crayons, guitars, tennis rackets, multicolored plastic easter eggs, obsolete foreign currency, photographs, harmonicas, a small wooden artists model dancing behind a pair of candles -- and saw it not as the mess it is but as the work of art it's trying to be. In Kansas City, I thought, it is possible to live the dream.

Someone asked me recently if I ever worry that life is passing me by. Of course I do. I'm always looking at where people I know are moving to or traveling through and thinking how much fun that would be. Living in the town you grew up in, it's hard not to feel stuck at times. Life passes all of us by, whether we like it or not. But part of being free is to free yourself from sticking to goals that no longer apply and letting your dreams morph into something new.

Big cities and foreign countries will always be cool to me. And I'll never take my eyes off that prize. But for now, we've got a nice little city of our own, my friends and I. Life, like a pop song, is short. Cities, like favorite songs, are multitude. In the end the one you pick is almost arbitrary. Better to enjoy it while it lasts.