I was at a small folk music show yesterday. It was fantastic, and filled me with inspirational ideas about how to solve a few of the problems that have been rattling around in my head. On acoustic and electric guitar, and often singing, was a fascinating man named John, who had a long, curly beard. His daughter sang too, sometimes going acappella.
Lots of the songs were covers of existing songs (such as ‘What’s so funny about peace love and understanding?’). One song was about the struggle of an immigrant boy John had met along his way. Some songs were about worship and Christian ideas, although for me they all resonated in unique ways: A song about coming home to the person who broke the chains of your loneliness and unhappiness was about God, but it helped me realise how, in my recent pursuit of going out to the people and helping them as much as I could, I had been neglecting by partner, who was struggling with this new version of me. I realised that all of this new light in my life was only possible because of how much they loved and supported me. To me, this was the most emotional song they played, because it affected me on a deeply personal level like no other songs did that night.
At the interval, during conversation with Shannon, the person sitting to my right, I asked “What was your favourite song?”. She was visibly put off by the question, and said that they were all good really. I realised what I’d done: By framing my question in a way that champions some songs, I was pushing others aside. I re-framed my question and asked what I had really been wanting to know: “Were there any songs in particular that resonated deeply with you?”. Because, what I was interested in was the effect this music was having on her, since it was affecting me in such a wonderful way.
This reminded me of a Vice interview with a Russian person named Vissarion, who people have been following as a new messiah figure. When asked what his favourite food was, he didn’t answer the question directly, but instead said “I interpret things differently”.