I love Opera and Elf

Reflecting over my last blogs titled «I love Opera, I and II» Elf commented smugly:

-You had a long tirade but I am not sure you made your point! Anyway, you do not need to strive anymore, I can understand where you are driving at.

-You can, can you?! I asked sarcastically.

-Yes, he went on undeterred by my remark, look, what you try to say is that music must be an imbricated slatebody into the tissues of your being. But it always is!, if it is not then you have just noise, maybe coherent, ordered noise, but just noise! Now, who can judge when this noise start to gain the state of music in your awareness?
-You asked me, he kept pressing, if your mind is yours, well, to your surprise you will find that your mind is of your hormones, your internal organs and the external environment more than yours in the sense that you are the driver of most things yours and as in the case of a car, you can tell it where to go, but little or nothing can you tell the motor how to obtain energy. This it does just by the way it is done and following the health of each of its parts!
So does your mind, you can try and develop deep thoughts about any subject, but that’s all, if you are ill or distracted by anything in your body or environment your mind will react accordingly. This is true, believe me! And… where does this leave us?… under new unpredictable reactions!

Elf seemed buried in deep thoughts, his eyes were veiled and he looked as in a trance.

-You know, he went on, this is not just coincidence, it was done so as to keep your free will in a highly unstable environment…

Suddenly, he seemed to recover, his eyes returned to their normal brightness and with a bashful smile (something outlandish on his countenance) he said almost in a whisper:

-Oh! forget it!

-What I mean, kept going the gnome recovering totally, is that you are talking about something you have no knowledge about, from the control room of your mind (that is you, the person) your feelings “seem” to react to all those things the way you described, and of course, they do. It is true, absolutely true you feel it so. But, and this is a BIG BUT, you cannot project these perceptions as a mathematical equation over the rest of human beings. You see, the beauty of it?!

I was totally confused, didn’t know what was he talking about and so I said:

-No I don’t, and what are talking about?!

-Please, Elf seemed hurt, try and be intelligent! I am talking about how people react to music and how any one has control of “some” part of the surrounding space and personal reactions! You seem so sure that those “raucous kindled voices, high pitched noises, and repeated beat” cannot awake subtle, inherent feelings because they don’t in yourself, but you forget where those feelings come from. You can talk about yourself but never about other people sensations!

I was astounded. How can an Elf, and one who lives in MY MIND know about the production of feelings in other people minds!

I inhaled deeply and counter attacked.

-What do you know about other people feelings?, barely can reach and learn about my feelings since you live immersed in them, but…

-Stop it! Elf was deadly serious and with his little hand showing his palm toward my mind-eyes.
-Stop it! he repeated. The one who knows nothing is you! Can you tell me who am I?, or, for that matter, can you tell me who YOU are? He looked real mad, I’ve never seen him like that.

-When you open judgement over some other people, the sprite went on, what you are doing is wrong. I know, it is a kind of emotional elation to find your tastes are part of what is called “superior cultural environment” and you do not relish in those other common based fancies that do not belong into this definition, but it is only because of the egregious ego you, all of you human beings, possess since the… err… ehem… Well, never mind! but remember! You are NOT better than anyone else only because you are more knowledgeable, more educated, more beautiful or more whatever than those anyone elses…

I was dumbfounded, my mind was making a big effort to understand what was the little puck talking about, egregious ego? possessed since… when? Was he really preaching on me? So:

-Are you preaching on me? I said making believe as much rage as I could muster, but still bewildered enough as not to be mad, only trying not to loose ground through my own confusion.

-Preach?!… preach?! he was getting dark red on the rim of his pointed ears, what the heck you talking about?

Well, at least he was asking the same I asked him a while ago!

-I am not preaching no one! (here we go, you know, when mad he forget his grammar), I am stating a fact and showing to your smug face those things you make better and… wrong! Sure, you like Opera better’n other music, so what? it is wonderful, I know it, to feel those things you describe, but it is so only because you are made as you are made! What if other people like Heavy Metal?, they may or they may not feel the same but that is not determined by knowledge, education, beauty or anything else, the final reason is hormonal, environmental and lastly slightly touched by the mind’s owner psyche. So, stop feeling the need to be the Knight of Music. Just show your tastes, explain them to others and let anyone else decide what they like or not!

Another balloon punctured! this darn Elf is always successful when it means to destroy well concocted theories. OK, Opera is better than anything else… to me! In the ultimate stage, who am I to decide there are better art in one expression in detriment of another? I had to recognize Elf is right and even if deep inside myself I still “knew” or better “know” Opera is the only way to enjoy music, I couldn’t say it was a generic feeling. As always, our estrangement from one another makes human beings so difficult to fathom with our own measures. Even if a word means the same to anyone, not always that “same” is equally understood by everybody.


© 2007 Soother.