The Music All Around Us

So Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computing, announced iCloud on Monday. iCloud is rumored (facts not available at the time of writing this post) to be a “digital locker” type service for the storage of music. It may be very similar to Amazon’s recently released cloud storage service for music.

That’s just what some of my kids, and most of their friends need – another reason to keep ear buds stuck in their heads.

I did a very unscientific study a couple of months ago at Chip’s college. Nine out of ten college students that I observed walking around campus had ear buds in.

I love music, and when I was college age, I’m sure I did my share of listening to music. But now I find music in things other than iPods, MP3 players, and yes, even iClouds. I love hearing the sound of birds early in the morning. I love the sound of wind whistling through the trees. I can sit on my porch and listen to the sounds of my neighborhood – doors slamming, cars starting, children laughing – for hours on end. The pfft, pfft sound of the water sprinkler watering my garden brings a smile to my face, and the woodpecker who has lost his way and is banging his head against my neighbors aluminum siding always makes me laugh. I enjoy trying to figure out what kind of insect is making a certain sound, and I am constantly amazed by the incredibly fast fluttering sound that comes from the hummingbirds congregated around my red honeysuckle plant.

And sometimes, I like just hearing nothing – that silence that along with closed eyes can transport me to another time and place.

I worry that my children (the ones who can hear) will miss those things. I worry that their heads and their memories will only be filled with the likes of Will.I.Am, Jennifer Lopez, and hundreds of other musicians, not the sounds of the world around them.

Maybe it’s an appreciation that will come with age, but I want them to have the experience of those sounds now so that their memories can transport them back in time when they are older.

Maybe I just need to hide all the ear buds for a day or so, assuming I could even get them out of their ears!