There are things that people say to you that profoundly affect how you experience your life.  It doesn’t have to be profound to them, but it’s the right thing to trigger a paradigm shift in your brain that resonates through the rest of your life.

I am not a musician, but for me, there was a moment like that related to music.  I was in a Humanities class learning about boring old classical music.  One of our teachers rolled in this improbably large speaker.  “I know you think that this isn’t relevant to you,” she said, “but I’ll tell you, my husband is a musician.  He knows how to play 23 instruments, and he’ll tell you that this is a composition that is every bit as complex and meaningful as any symphony.” She pushed the button, and “When Doves Cry” came on.  We spent the rest of the class listening to that composition and seeing how many instruments we could identify and really appreciating the layers of sound that created that song.  It really shifted how I listened to not just contemporary music, but classical music as well.

Music is important to me.  I believe that it takes effort to keep yourself open to new music, but  I believe that effort pays dividends in open-mindedness in other areas.  It’s an attitude that I hope to pass along to my kids.  I don’t know how much I’m succeeding. Hopefully they just think that A.R. Rahman and Led Zeppelin and Willie Nelson and Chemical Brothers are always on playlists together.  However that turns out, though, I will always be grateful for that lecture. I will always be grateful that I got the chance to expand my musical perspective in a way that has substantially enriched my life.  And I will always associate Prince with that gratitude.