My identity is slowly being erased from the physical landscape of my house. I am taking my CD’s off of the shelves that line the walls of our dining area and putting them in plastic inserts to be stored in three-ring binders. Now, a new visitor to our home will walk in and have no idea that I am a music person. The alters constructed to display the essential, beautiful and overwhelming force that music is in my life, will be packed away and out of sight.
The last time I remember doing this was with my vinyl collection, and it was to make room for my CD’s. My music library has followed me around over the past twenty-five years, making each new move a bit more daunting because of the constant growth of my collection. But no matter where I landed, it was always placed out on display like artwork.
In the digital age, “things” like CD’s and records seem obsolete and unnecessary. But my feeling is that despite all the la-de-da bumper stickers and inspirational calendar pages telling us in cute little quotes how “things” are not what are important in life, I think things are immensely important. Things are what we use to speak to one another, how we know if someone is in our tribe. Things are the symbols we assemble to let people know what the hell is going on inside our heads. The first move I make when I visit a person for the first time, is towards towards their CD collection and bookshelves. Dogs sniff asses, I sniff music and book collections. If the smell intrigues me, you’re in.
So my current heartbreak comes in that it is time to put these artifacts of my life, my music collection, out of sight. Of course this does make more room for bookshelves.
Now, to what this blog is all about. In the process of going through all my CD’s, some for the first time in ten years, I have had the honor of cradling each one in my hand for a moment as I slip them into their new homes. This has brought back lots of memories of times past. It is amazing how music, or even just an album cover can bring you right back to a particular time in your life. And there have been many surprises as well, such as where did this Blues Traveler CD come from and why do I have so many Indigo Girls albums?
With all this emotional attachment whirling around, I have decided that I am going to “review” each and every CD in my collection, so the artifacts of my life are still on display somewhere, even if just in the virtual world. Here we go…
ZYZXX 