Neither Shall You Steal . . .

. . . Music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way. –Anne Lamott

Right now I’m sitting on my bed, enjoying the beautiful scratches and pops of the Melody Men Gospel Quartet on my record player. I love listening to records. There’s just something more natural and organic about hearing music this way. I love the sound right before the music starts, when the needle is first dropped on the vinyl. It’s the first breath of life in the music. It’s the conductor bringing up his baton, while the whole orchestra lifts their shoulders and takes a deep breath.

Then the orchestra begins to play. It isn’t perfect, but it’s good. It’s really good. Every once in a while you can hear the sound of the viola player scooting her chair, as the needle hits a little imperfection in the grooves. Sometimes, if the record is old enough and warped enough, you can hear the whole orchestra speed up for just a second. I love when that happens.

(Ooh, this record is really popping right now. Excuse me while I flip it over)

If only you could take a record player with you as you go throughout your day. It would be so great to have a soundtrack following you everywhere you go. I guess that’s why IPods are so cool. Oh, by the way, someone stole my IPod last night. They also stole all the change out of my change jar.

I guess the moral of this story is: Please give me my IPod back.