The Music of the Ainur

First, about the title. I'm a bit of a Tolkien nerd, though more of a modern one I suppose in that it is the movies that fed my interest in the books. And not just the trilogy, which I enjoyed . . . I'm currently alternating between the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

The first pages of the Silmarillion contain Tolkien's creation myth for his world of Arda . . . in it, Eru, The One, creates the Ainur, and instructs them to create music. Each one of the Ainur know a bit of the mind of Eru, but no one of them knows it all, and so in their music, they play what they know. This blends into a beautiful symphony, and in their minds they see what Eru has envisioned for future creating . . .

I write this because I just listened to a song that takes me somewhere very deep every time I listen to it - and there are a few songs that do this. But Congratulations by Blue October is especially tough to listen to sometimes. It touches a deep place in my heart that longs for something not yet fully realized while also effecting some wounds that have yet to fully heal. I'm not going to write more about this know, as words don't really do that area of me justice and I'm sure confusion would ensue . . . rather, I want to talk about the power of music.

We have dictionaries to tell us what we have agreed to be the definition of a word as an English speaking culture, and so when we communicate just with words, we mean something fairly precise for the most part. But no one tells us what music is to mean to us. The same song that brings joy to someone's heart can wound another's. The same chords that one enjoys listening to can offend the sensibility of the person beside them. And for me, anyway, every song I love is tied to a particular memory, a particular place, or more usually, a particular person or group of people.

And then there are those songs that inspire dreams, that give me a glimpse of the way things could be and dare one to hope. It's not unlike the Ainur with Eru, I think - perhaps these songs area bit of the mind of God, pushing us towards what we have been made for?

I left out a little bit in my allusion to Tolkien. There is one of these Ainu, named Melkor, who was the greatest and knew more of the mind of Eru than the others. But when he was instructed to play, he desired to play his own chords, and was out of tune with the rest of his brothers and sisters. Eru rebuked him, and Melkor was ashamed . . . so when Melkor saw the full vision of Eru, the creation of Arda and the making of Elves and Men, he desired to have subjects of his own and rule over them . . .

It's a nice, warm and fuzzy kind of thought to think that music can inspire dreams and make us think of what can be . . . but there is someone who does not want to see those dreams come to pass. Understand, I'm not talking about dreams that are self serving, because ultimately those dreams aren't about who we really are and who we really are meant to be. But if you've felt your heart being tugged by something, if there is something that excites you when you think about it and the prospect of never doing it is profane to you, then by all means, DO IT. Chase that dream. And if you've spent a lifetime aimlessly drifting, let 2010 be the year you seek out your purpose with reckless abandon.

As for me? Well, I got some dreams. I'll keep you posted on what they are and how they are coming along :)