The nonsensical ponderings of Eric Frisch...

Most of my posts on this blog focus on music in some way (I know... big shocker!).  My recent stuff has been no different: as I look down the entries still visible on this page, I see a post about my agonizing over Music History.  I also see the lyrics to two songs that I'm very much loving right now.  So where is the disconnect?  Both are about beautiful music, when it comes down to it... what makes one positive and one negative?  It has to do with the way that beauty is perceived. 

I consider myself a fairly simple person.  If I hear a beautiful piece of music, I am content to simply enjoy it and say at the end, "That was beautiful".  Perhaps that will inspire me to listen again, perhaps not, but it doesn't matter... the experience of listening was a thing of beauty.  The problem comes when I am asked (or more likely, forced) to analyze something, to pick it apart and find it's quirks, anomalies, and defects.  For me, this process often wears much of the initial beauty away.  Am I saying that this process should never occur?  Of course not.  For some, it can add to the beauty of the piece, just not for me.  And yes, occaisionally I will approach something in this light of my own volition, but that is a completely different thing as well.  The problem lies in being required to do something that is very subjective.

This same logic can obviously be applied to many aspects of our lives, including the way we view other people, but in the end it all comes down to the same thing: humans want to understand things.  In general, we want to break things down to their very smallest unit, study them intensely, and then make a judgement on them.  I understand that logic, but it simply isn't the way I look at the world.  Maybe that makes me simpleminded, I don't know.  I would much rather think of it as a more appreciative way of viewing the world.

This week I have encountered many beautiful things that run the gamut from music to art to people.  Why is it never enough to leave it at that?