brain damage

i picked up musicophilia written by oliver sacks at the book store. it discusses music from a neurological standpoint. pretty similar to levitin's this is your brain on music so far, only it's included some specific cases of peoples' unique (or maybe not so unique) relationships with music.

in the first chapter sacks hypothesizes that a person's obsession with or special talent for music can be connected to significant damage to the temporal lobe. one man survived a lightning strike to the head and afterwards, at age 42, became so obsessed with chopin he became a self-taught concert pianist and composer. another case involves a woman who began taking anti-epileptic meds intended to "deactivate" parts of the temporal lobe. in turn, her personality changed drastically and so did her taste for music. she became so passionate about classical music she demanded her husband take her to concerts where she was so affected by the music she would sometimes cry.

so, in summary, i have brain damage. something i suspected already.

what he's saying is that people who are passionate about and excel in music need to sort of dismiss the logic of language. they have to let it go and kind of accept music as a language in a way that a fully functional human cannot and dismiss the idea that music is unnecessary or senseless. i think this means i need to find all of the decision makers in education and spike their morning coffee with temporal lobe-ruiners. then maybe they'll give a crap about music programs.

of course, none of this is totally proven. it's only a series of educated guesses by an incredibly intelligent neurologist. no one even began studying music's connection to the brain until 1980. i don't know if i ever want to fully understand the "mechanics" of why we care about music. it could change everything. let it be.

will's at the gym and i'm home. i'd been going every time he goes until i got sick. i can't wait to start running again. anyway, there's lots to do today. sending out mom's gift (finally - happy bday mom), picking up garbage bags and a few other miscellaneous items, ordering a bus card, watching the game later.

go badgers. (oh how i hate ohio.)