Universal languages

I’m a writer. It is the gift I was given and I am grateful for it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Still, I have to wonder what I would do with a different talent: specifically music. When I was younger I chose music to listen to based on its lyrics (classical music is a whole other blog post). Lyrics to music drove me. I guess that comes from me being a writer. R&B, metal, and everything in-between (save for country – I could never get into that)..it all was good music to me if the lyrics were speaking to me.

Now that I am older, and living with less angst than a teenager, I haven’t paid attention to lyrics as much lately. What I have noticed is the music tone and the emotion of the singer. I say this because some of the music that drives me lately is not even in English (my only language unless you include Hawaiian pidgen). Daichi Miura has become the most played on my iTunes (or windows media music player at work). Some of his chorus is in English but mostly he sings in Japanese. I cannot get enough of him. His emotion speaks to me when his words cannot.

There are more examples of music not in my native language but I want to focus on Daichi here. The emotion itself gives some indication to the intention of the song. You can tell it is heartbreaking by the time he is half way through the first verse. He speaks to your heart without speaking to your linguistic skills.

As a writer I can’t do that. I have to speak your language for you to have any idea what I am trying to convey. But musicians, they have an entirely different canvas in which to paint you a picture of their message. I envy them a little.

I wouldn’t give up writing for anything, please do understand that. But still, I often wonder what I would do as a singer or a musician. I suppose if I sang as much as I write I would drive everyone around me a little insane. Yeah, writing is definitely for me.