There Is Also Real Life Happening

And part of it is the way the kids’ minds work, and how I marvel at it. Rose mentioned that she likes to listen to "music without words" when she is reading or painting. "You know the kind," she said, "sort of soft and dangerous."

Soft and dangerous. I kept turning the phrase over in my mind. It’s perfect; I know just what she means. I iChatted Scott, our music guru, to ask for CD suggestions. He fired back a list. (Or rather, John Stossel did. Don’t ask me why, but that’s my husband’s current IM avatar. I think I liked last week’s pirate hamster icon better.)

Chat

First I had to laugh for about ten minutes because John Stossel knows there is no way in tarnation I would voluntarily listen to Brian Eno. I know, musical genius and all that, but ambient music makes the fillings want to leap out of my teeth, and my eardrums shiver like aspen leaves.

When I finally stopped howling, I found the Shostakovich and put in on. This was at lunchtime; the girls were just sitting down to sandwiches. Rose listened to the opening notes of the symphony and said, "Yeah. That’s just what I meant."

"I know what she means by ‘soft and dangerous,’ Mom," mused Jane. "To put it in math terms, I’d call it XYZ music. You knowβ€”it’s about variables."

"Signing Time!" yelled Wonderboy.

"Do you like my mustache?" purred John Stossel.

I couldn’t answer. I was busy pouring milk for children who are soft, dangerous, and variable. 

12 thoughts on “There Is Also Real Life Happening”

  1. How wonderful! This is the sort of day I dream of as I consider homeschooling my daughter who will be kindergarten age next year. She also enjoys “music without words” and often describes it as “dancey music”. Her favortie “dancey” pieces right now are Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23 and a CD of Tchaikovsky’s waltzes.

  2. John Stossel! ROTFLOL!!! Maybe your husband and mine were separated at birth (does he like “The Tick” cartoon, especially “that mustache feeling” episode)?
    My guy has had a “Ed Harris and Potted Meat for president” campaign for the past 2 elections now.
    Where do they come from and who are these small people they gave us?

  3. Would Mr. Stossel, I wonder, be willing to recommend some starter music for a baby? Stimulating but not too stimulating if you know what I mean?

  4. you gave me such a laugh with this post! I could barely follow what you were talking about, but found it all highly amusing anyway! My husband has a political person as his avatar- just because he is so *not* him, not going to mention who now…
    gave me such a laugh, now I’m thinking of what off the wall/opposite me I can use as a avatar…
    my kids call the Four seasons “butterfly music” for some reason.
    thanks for the chuckles

  5. LOL at John Stossel, that must have been disconcerting the first time πŸ˜‰
    My kids love ‘music without words’. I find it highly amusing when they do some kind of head-banging dance to Tchaikovsky’s Russian Dance from The Nutcracker though πŸ˜‰

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