The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Our day–to-day life is bombarded with fortuities or, to be more precise, with the accidental meetings of people and events we call coincidences. “Co-incidence” means that two events unexpectedly happen at the same time, they meet: Tomas appears in the hotel restaurant at the same time the radio is playing Beethoven. We do not even notice the great majority of such coincidences. If the seat Tomas occupied had been occupied instead by the local butcher, Tereza never would have noticed that the radio was playing Beethoven (though the meeting of Beethoven and the butcher would also have been an interesting coincidence). But her nascent love inflamed her sense of beauty, and she would never forget that music. Whenever she heard it, she would be touched. Everything going on around her at that moment would be haloed by the music and take on its beauty.”

I’ve been reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and fell in love with this passage. It got me thinking about coincidences or serendipitous events in our lives, those that we notice and those that pass us by without a guise or rarity. I lack an eye for coincidence or fateful moments until after the fact. Maybe it’s growing knowledge and perspective allowing me to look back on events and point out particular fortuities previously unfolded in time. Kundera writes later, “It is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.” How true, if we had eyes to see each moment of serendipity, we would become more aware of the delicate weavings of our story and the stories of those around us. In those moments, each would find incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only

“But her nascent love inflamed her sense of beauty, and she would never forget that music. Whenever she heard it, she would be touched. Everything going on around her at that moment would be haloed by the music and take on its beauty.”

I loved this. As a bit of a music junkie, I am incredibly influenced by music and it’s a rarity to find me living in silence. It is the soundtrack to my life. I’ve always wanted to make playlists for a living and since that job isn’t so much knocking on my door, I volunteer my time making my own life playlists as well as the playlists for several friends. Mixed tapes and CDs were always my favorite gifts, with homemade cookies, too. I’m getting side-tracked here…I’m not entirely sure where I’m even going with this but I just know that I am highly influenced by music. Songs can take us back to a time and a place of joy or sorrow and I love its power to do that.

Whenever I hear, “sea breeze” by Tyrone Wells I immediately find myself back at the University of Washington on a sunny spring day, sitting at a table in the HUB completely unaware of everything going on around me and utterly mesmerized by his voice and melody. I skipped class that day to listen to him play. Whenever I hear that song, I find my insides fluttering just as they did years ago. In another moment, I recall standing with my sister-in-law Lisa, in the crowded Crocodile Café in Seattle listening to Rocky Votolato belt out “Montana” for the first time. Goose bumps greet my arms as I relive the moment. Every time I hear those songs, I experience the beauty of those moments, and that is such a cool thing.