People are like art. Don't you think so? Or music... People are like art and like music.
Here's what I was thinking. People are fascinating to me. I love them. The problem with a statement like that is that it has no oomph. It's way too general: "I love people." It could mean a lot of different things, really.
First, what does it mean, to "love people?" Does that mean that I... like humanity? Really? You LOVE every individual in the world? That's a hard sell, frankly.
I guess appreciate might be closer to what I mean. Even with a word like appreciate (that allows for the inevitable distance between me and nearly all of the rest of the human race) it still rings a little false. How can I appreciate what I don't know? Even what I do get a chance to observe is only a fraction of a fraction of everything human that could be observed... No, appreciate doesn't really work, either.
But what about art? What about music? It's not too strange to call yourself an art lover or a music lover, right? What fits under the art umbrella? Cave painting, impressionist daubs of hand mixed paint, simple pen and ink, sculpture, installation art, photo realism... Art is something that we can experience with our eyes (and sometimes other senses) that is made to evoke a response from us or tell a story. (Yes, that definition is mine. Here is a much better qualified definition. ) Art is an effort to capture beauty, initiate change, make us curious, frighten us, terrify us, or educate us. And music is just as broad.
Music... At Thanksgiving dinner this year, a brother-in-law of mine said he was thankful for music. When you stop to consider how music enriches your life, you might find that you become more consciously grateful for music, like I did. A parent's lullaby, a soaring movie soundtrack, deathmetal scream fest, the latest top pop song, the unfamiliar rhythms from someone else's continent... Music is amazing. Music, for me, gives my soul room to spread when it connects with my own emotions.
I'm fascinated by the difference in what people connect with, too. I've heard from a lot of people that deathmetal is relaxing. For me, it's the opposite. To some people, though, music that makes me angry, lets them feel peace. That's what I've been told. But I'm not trying to talk about art or music.
I want to talk about people.
No, I don't know every individual incredibly well. Obviously. I probably only know a handful of people really, really well.
But I love watching people live their lives. I love trying to be aware of what secret histories may motivate him or her. I love seeing similarities and how they combine differently with different character traits or lifestyle choices. Maybe I can draw a comparison with music and Pandora here. Put the name of a song into Pandora, and a complex decision procedure will search out similar songs using nearly 400 different attributes.
Here's a bit from the wikipedia description of the Music Genome Project: each
"gene corresponds to a characteristic of the
music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. Rock and pop songs have 150 genes, rap songs have 350, and jazz songs have approximately 400. Other genres of music, such as world and classical music, have 300–500 genes. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results."
In art, of course, you have hundreds of attributes as well. Has anyone done an art genome project?
(Well, I'll be darned. Look here. Then look here. And here. Amazing.)
See? I love people. I love trying to become aware of an individual's unique collection of not-so-unique attributes. I love seeing those unique personalities react with a person's past and present story, and their environment (macro and micro). (This is as good a place as any to add that if I've ever told you that you remind me of someone, it's just that I've noticed some attributes that I think you have in common. It doesn't mean I think you've somehow been cloned.)
I love people.
(Incidentally, being a parent is a pretty good position to hold as a people lover. Lucky me!)
(Incidentally, being a parent is a pretty good position to hold as a people lover. Lucky me!)
