Music connects us

I spent the day with my cat Mimi and away

from most of my family.My cat was going to collaborate with me today,

but she decided not to cooperate and play the piano duet I had scheduled, so it's onto plan B.

Today I got thinking of crowds since it was Black Friday yesterday, and there was supposedly a big Football game going on downtown. I value my sleep and my sanity so I did not go out at all yesterday, but I have been stuck in crowds before — either on the street or jammed like a sardine onto the Trax trains after a big event that I didn't know about.

One thing I have observed about people is that they are often stuck in their own little bubbles, either as individuals or with the people they are with. We tend to like our space and carry with us our I-pods, cell phones to text on, hand-held games or books to entertain us and make us look busy so we don't have to interact with strangers. (At least this is my theory).

Then I got thinking of how different I feel after attending a concert. We all go in as strangers, often sitting next to people we don't know. But music- whatever it is- has a way of uniting us and often I will find myself turning to someone next to me during intermission, or after the concert and I'm sitting on the Trax and I'll ask strangers beside me how they liked it, and wasn't this part amazing, etc, etc. Music makes us more humane humans. It has a way of uniting us and creating good feelings among perfect strangers that make us want to reach out and connect to people we didn't know before.