One Tune, You Pick the Lyrics

Sometimes I watch videos without sound. No tune. No lyrics. Just to see what it’s like. Even now that I spend a lot of my time with only myself as a companion, it’s hard to imagine. I still hear the click of my fingers on the keyboard as I type. I still hear my phone when it buzzes. Or the door when it rings. The rushes when cars drive by. And millions of other everyday ordinary sounds. Things that don’t seem to matter until they do. So after the muted video plays I go back and watch it with sound.

The difference is crazy. Outstanding, really. There’s so much you miss without the volume on. Those little things like music in the background or a word you couldn’t lip-read, make a huge impact. It’s frustrating to know that they’re there. But it doesn’t matter when you can’t hear them. Enjoying a video when you have enough information you feel as though you should understand but not enough to actually compute is extremely challenging. The feeling of disconnection sucks and then the video ends. Without you knowing what just happened or why it happened. Sure you can go back and rewatch it. Make your best guess and assume you have all the pieces to the puzzle. In reality, though, you know you don’t. Something will always be missing without the sound.

Sometimes, for me at least,  life feels a lot like watching a video without sound.

Weeks at a time go by where I can’t shake the feeling that I’m drifting. Floating along with no direction or course becoming hopelessly lost. I feel like life keeps running full speed ahead while I’m being left to eat the leftover dust. No matter how hard I try to stay caught up somehow I always am missing something. But everything is right in front of me. So why is it that I can’t keep up?

How do you unmute your life? How do you bring back the sound that once gave everything meaning and purpose?

Everyone has the same tune in the background of their lives. How could we not? We’re all humans. We all have the same needs. The same basic desires to be wanted, loved, comfortable. So why do some people go through life with the volume turned all the way up enjoying every little sensation and others can’t hear a single pen drop?  I think it has something to do with the lyrics.

The lyrics that fit the tune are up to each individual person. Because we all have our own lives. We all write our own stories every day. And those stories determine the lyrics. If they’re happy or sad. If they are so wonderful we waltz through life with the volume blasting singing along because it’s our favorite song; or if we mute everything blocking the tune, music, and lyrics out because we hate the song playing but aren’t sure how to change it. That’s problematic; if there’s no sound you can’t hear the tune. If there’s no tune you’re not writing a story. Which means there are no lyrics.

So if you can’t hear the tune try changing the lyrics. It’s amazing what can happen when you actually enjoy the song.

Life is our video. Don’t go through it without any sound.

-Kay