Oh, flatter me!

"None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not." Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677) Dutch Jewish philosopher.

This post is inspired by a thought that came to me while viewing the Mormon Message, "Voice of the Spirit." Have you seen it? I'll post it at the end of this guy ("this guy" referring to this blog post.)

The gist of the video is an answer to the posed question, "What voice are you tuning in to?" Among the different kinds of voices suggested was "flattering voices." The imagery shown in the video to compliment flattering voices is a boy rolling through the neighborhood on a skateboard with headphones in. He coolly bobs his head as he whizzes past an old man strolling down the side-walk.

Punk music is a flattering voice, huh? I tried to understand what's flattering about the music we listen to. I guess I would agree that most music on the radio is generally celebrating ourselves. No matter what you did- you cheated, you lied, you got angry- the song justifies it and brings pride to the behavior. I guess that is pretty flattering. Nothing you feel you're out-of-place for feeling. Much different than a good friend that will listen and then set you straight, a good song will agree with you in every grievance. You feel upset and like taking revenge? You go girl! Make him suffer! You love a married man and are seeking him out? That totally makes sense! You shared something special with him! You're happiness is most important anyway! Do it! You get the idea. Think about almost any song. They are flattering to your own emotions, right?

I had a funny experience listening to the radio a while ago. I told my sister about it because of how distinct and surprising it was. I would say this took place back in June. I had made a marked effort to "tune out the world," so to speak, and had been listening to only Sunday stuff… conference, mormon channel, classical music, MoTab, etc. One day after work, I climbed into my car and decided I'd had enough of all the churchy stuff and flipped the station to some pop radio. Within the minute I had it on, I had this knee jerk reaction of being repulsed. The phrase that went through my head was, "This is not my gospel." I would equate this experience to your national news radio station of choice suddenly broadcasting what North Korea has playing in every home. You would immediately recognize the sentiments and politics as "not my country." You'd probably be a little repulsed you had almost trusted in it without thought. So yeah, the juxtaposition of gospel principle based audio to today's pop music was intensely revealing to me. I was a little amused at how off guard that experience took me.

Beside the flattery of music and that it teaches a lot of the doctrine of Satan, music holds another power. You can tap into any emotion almost instantly by listening to a particular song. It's almost like a drug. And, like a drug, this power must be used carefully. For example, sometimes it feels good to allow yourself to feel sad… or to wallow. But wallowing can only be allowed for a short period of time (depending on what you're grieving.) I have go-to sad songs I call on in moments of true despair. One, Kristy recently introduced me to, is "Fool of Me." I don't even have to be sad for this song to reach back and harrow up something painful to recall and melodramatically focus on while I listen to it. (Insert: Something you should also know about me is I practice crying on the spot. Why? Because don't you think that's cool?! To be able to shed tears on demand without reason? Shanna and I practice together. We can be in the middle of a conversation when either of us interjects, "Crying contest. Go." And we both grimace our faces and focus on the floor. The first to shed a tear wins. Laugh now, but this talent may land me an Oscar someday.)

When I'm asked what kind of music I like, I always feel a little bit stumped. I'm inclined to answer, "everything" because I feel like I pull from just about every genre (except that really dark stuff.) In fact, I blew out a speaker in my Subaru while listening to Def Leppard's "Let's Get Rocked" somewhere on the spiderweb of California freeway. Sometimes I feel like loud, angry music with a good strong bass can actually beat a bad mood out of me. When you can physically feel the vibration of a beat in your heart, few things are better. My dream car has a list of requirements. At the top of that list is a cool fabric interior (like herringbone? …wait, that's what I have now) and a tricked out sound system (the opposite of what I have now). My choice of music for running is kind of strange. The typical gym anthems drive me crazy. Any pop, actually, discourages my athleticism. I run really well to chill, chill music. I'm talking Yo-Y-Ma-Norah-Jones-John-Meyery chill. Music you could take a nap to. It seems like it would be counter productive, but calm music is the perfect antidote to exercise anxieties and I feel like I breath better and run strong when I'm relaxed. Upbeat stuff just stresses me out. (Minus a select few songs… that is, DNVO. Love that one for running!) No surprise I can't listen to any music when I'm racing. I hate the distraction. Yeah, me and my competitive racing. I'm just so picky about my running conditions. When titles are on the line, you kind of have to be.

Speaking of song and music, I've been trying to compose a list of my all-time favorite songs. When I get board at work (which is never! …okay, it's fairly often), I open up my excel spreadsheet of favorites. Lists I am now compiling are: favorite movies, favorite songs to karaoke to, favorite life experiences, and travel destinations I hope to visit someday. I think you all would be really entertained to see my favorite songs to karaoke to (They are not the same as my favorite songs at all.) But I'll leave you with a short list of a few of my favorite songs:

• I Believe In You and Me, Whitney Houston (from The Preacher's Wife)
• Peel Me a Grape, Diana Krall
• How Deep is the Ocean, Diana Krall
• Plenty, Guru featuring Erykah Badu
• The Rain from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" (performed by Turtle Island String Quartet on the Winter's Solstice IV album)
• Have You Seen Me Lately, Counting Crows (acoustic version)
• Butterflies, Michael Jackson
• They Can't Take That Away From Me, Frank Sinatra (duet version with Natalie Cole)
• DNVO, Justice
• The Water is Wide, Charlotte Church
  
• Like an Angel Passing through My Room, Sissel Kyrkjebo (from MoTab's Spirit of the Season album)
• Impossible, Anberlin
• Wonderboy, Tenacious D
• Blackbird/I Will, The Swingle Singers
• Hide and Seek, Imogen Heap
• Calling My Children Home, Emmalou Harris (live version)
• Opening: The New World, Songs for a New World
• (And the dirtiest, worst, most deplorable songs that I love…love to dance to, I can't mention here because it will forever dirty my name. But call me, and I'll give you the scoop.)

There was a time with each of these songs when I would listen to them on repeat for days and sometimes weeks.