"Are We the Music or Does it Create Us"

I prefer to write on paper with a pencil - there is something terrene about the wood touching the white paper that was once wood…. So please be patient as I continue to work out this idea. The other day I was remembering a scene from the movie, “Touching The Void.” In this scene the main character of this true story, Joe Simpson, was dying from injuries and exposure after breaking his leg at about  20,000 ft. on the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. At one point during his unwavering fight to live this song came into his head

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaWsIzWZFr0)

Joe goes on to explain "A part of me performed tasks without conscious decision, as if I already told what to do, while the other part insisted on vocalizing a stupid meaningless song through my every thought (p.136)." But those thoughts helped keep him alive.

Music is such a mobile part of our lives now, it's difficult to think that  Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norway heard the Queens Coronation on a radio at the base of mount Everest.  Henry David Thoreau wrote "[I]was awakened in the night to a strain of music dying away, — passing travelers singing. My being was so expanded and infinitely and divinely related for a brief season that I saw how unexhausted, how almost wholly unimproved, was man’s capacity for a divine life. When I remembered what a narrow and finite life I should anon awake to! [Journal, 19 April 1856]."

And my favorite one so far by Mr. Thoreau is "The music of all creatures has to do with their loves, even of toads and frogs. Is it not the same with man? [Journal, 6 May 1852]"

So here are my questions to those who took the time to read this and have the time to contribute. Thank you so much :)

Question #1. Thoreau speaks of “love”. What does music mean to you and is it always there? Do you search for it? Or just turn it on? Is music private to you or do you enjoy sharing it with others.

Question #2. Does music make you feel different emotionally? How old were you when you discovered music could alter your emotions? Do you remember the song or group? Did you start doing activities where music was always included?

Question #3. Does music motivate you?  Do you feel stronger when running while listening to Justin Beiber (I would so make fun of you if that was true) or what about some punk or metal Is there a difference between one song motivating one person to do their dishes while the same song is motivating someone to climb Mt. Everest? Does the silence of loneliness through the music encourage the motivation for both?

I pray this makes some sense and is of some interest to you. Please don’t hesitate to write back here, privately, or to my email at yenoh76@gmail.com

I hope to email out a few private messages for my several friends that are avid runners and climbers. I know everyone is really busy so no rush in writing back. I’m deep in research and am having a blast! ~Lisa Anne

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”  ― Maya Angelou