12:34 February 18

I've been listening to a song called "Fundamental Ground" by TW Walsh a lot today. It has been a while since I've been captivated by a song this way. Some of the lyrics:

I can't complain / there's food on my table / there's wine in the drain / I'm looking for the fundamental ground.

I call myself a fan of music, but it's always been much more precious. It's absurd and beautiful and impossible that these combinations of sound waves could have such a profound effect on us, but it's universal--one of the few near-universal experiences of human-being-ness. When the hairs on my arms stand up in anticipation of a chorus or a bridge, I'm reminded of the physiological response music can elicit, and I imagine it connecting to me to centuries of people who have experienced the same.