Music, Alcohol, and Literature

I wish my medium was music. But my medium is words. Words are so limited. Music can reach into the depths of your mind and soul and connect with...something I cannot describe because there are no words to describe it. I've spent many hours clumsily strumming on guitars. And from time to time, I'll bang randomly on a piano. But the gift is not in me. Thank God for the people who do have it and use it. How much more dreary and impossible would life be without music?

That's not to say that the written word is unimportant. I could not get by without the words of the great writers. People who know me well will hear the same names come up again and again; the names of my literary heroes. Ludwig von Mises, H.L. Mencken, John Steinbeck, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Frederic Bastiat, Murray Rothbard, George Orwell, and Kurt Vonnegut, just to name a few. Like music, these men seem to be able to transcend the limitation of words and touch something deep. The same goes for Dostoevsky, Twain, Plato, and even Fred Reed. But these men are special. Most of us will never be able to make profound connections with strangers across time and space just by transforming the thoughts in our head into words to be read.

Listening to great musicians and reading great writing are forms of worship for me. If I combine them, the worship intensifies. But there is still a missing ingredient if I want to reach euphoria. I need alcohol. By themselves, each of these three things can make me reverent of the God of the universe. But when I combine them, it's one of the closest things to heaven on earth that I can ever experience, the other being incredible sex. You know the kind of sex I mean. The kind where you completely lose yourself in your partner and the entire world and its infinite problems evanesce. Time stops. The universe hums. Sex was definitely one of God's greatest inventions. Right up there with the aforementioned music, alcohol, and literature.

I suppose the common factor in all of these modes of worship is appreciation. And every individual shows their passionate appreciation for the creation in their own individual way. Some through cooking and/or eating. Some through caring for their children or their pets. Some people jump out of planes. Some people create beautiful paintings. Some people appreciate architecture and poetry. Some people like to sit quietly by a stream. And some people like to sit in a dim room, listening to Howlin' Wolf while drinking cheap bourbon on a rainy afternoon. There's no doubt about it. Appreciation is key.

I wish my medium was music. If my medium was music, I could make you understand how I think and feel without the use of any of these words. I could play a few notes and appreciation would involuntarily pour from your heart. The world would be a better place, if only for those few moments.