Destination Unknown
We are starting over again. But the earworms stay with me.
My dearest Galosh,
We are starting over yet again, but the earworms stay with me.
There are songs playing in the background of my life. Sometimes it's different songs every day which is nice. But some other times, it's the same damn thing over and over again until I feel like my brain is turning to scramble.
I am not sure how many people experience earworms on a regular basis, but I'm pretty sure I'm in a top percentile here.
I remember about three years ago I had "Body and Soul" in the concert improv of Carmen McRae running every day for a month and a half. And when my dad died, I got "Tennessee Waltz" in Norah Jones' version for a whole winter.
These days it's been a bit of instrumental from Manhattan Transfer's fantastic piece "Birdland". It's a terrific song by Jaco Pastorius in a 90’s remake. I've unfortunately come to the point that I will probably never enjoy it again.
Then last week, after having hummed the electronic keyboard bit from the beginning of the song until it was bare of any meaning, the gear changed. A memory popped up. The last time I had had a song stuck in my head this long had been about two years ago with "Every Saturday night" by Ray Charles and The Count Basie orchestra. Back then it had stayed with me for about a month and a half but I was pretty sure the 70's fusion jazz slash 90’s a cappella was breaking that record with flying colors by now.
And then...
Well then freakin' Ray Charles - rest his soul - came back with a vengeance, competing for the space in my brain against Birdland with aggressive trumpets swingin' to the beat.
It's been a week. He's still here. They both are.
I’ve moved around my whole life. These last three years I have lived in more than three different houses. Each one of these houses is wildly different from the others. There’s been an old dairy in the woods, a Provencal new build in the middle of nowhere with a fancy pool and the medieval residence where we are now. The feel of the houses is different, and so I thought we where different too.
Yet each of them have had songs in the background. And the memory of each of these songs today comes with the memory of those places.
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The hippocampus is a region of our brains that helps us with geo-location. It also registers memories in the same exact place. It plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and, crucial to my point, enables spatial memory.
That is the reason all of our memories have a space attached to them. The "images" of our childhood are inextricably linked to place.
Think of a happy memory. Bam! I know an image just popped up. You, as a person, are placed somewhere in relation to some outside elements.
For me, it's the lone cedar tree in the middle of the lawn and the virgin vines on the red brick walls of our little house in France when I was four. Notice the proportion of vegetal elements compared to actual architectural ones... biophilia is buried deep within me :))
Anyway, getting back to memories, places and songs. It's a bit confusing, but I know you’ll stay with me, my dearest Galosh. Like you always do.
This week while I have been having this - new - Ray Charles episode, images of the house where I had the - old - Ray Charles episode have been popping in. As if the song comes along with memories of space as well.
Does that mean there is some metadata of spacial content attached to those songs now recorded in my mind?
The houses have changed. But the songs haven't. We haven't.
We can't escape what is bugging us just by moving away. And once we understand that liberating thought we can start building houses for ourselves that aren’t ego driven, that aren’t built to fix the holes in our lives.
Because that is not their purpose.
This month we are moving again, destination unknown. Yes, the nomadic architect is at it once more.
I wonder if Ray will come with, to remind me of all the places I called home.
I hope you will come with, my dearest, so I can show you all the magic Future can bring once you open up to it fully.
As always yours,
Jo
PS. Now that I wrote “destination unknown“, I have the pleasure of welcoming a new tune to this week’s mix:) At least this one has boobies..
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I LOVE this: “...we can start building houses for ourselves that aren’t ego driven, that aren’t built to fix the holes in our lives.” An old gf once told me “wherever you go, there you are.” I’m content where I am now but can at the same time envision a future elsewhere. Sounds contradictory but it’s a hopeful feeling. :-)