Here's something I've been meaning to comment on for a while now and haven't had the chance. It's something I never expected and never heard of before:
Veronica cries when she hears sad songs.
I'm not talking a full-scale bawling, which may indicate a tantrum, physical discomfort, or displeasure about something in general. No, she doesn't make a sound. Her eyes just well up with tears that eventually spill down her cheeks while she remains silent. At first I didn't quite believe it, as my parents were the first to witness this. They had taken her to church some months back, without Jason or me present, and reported that Veronica had cried over a particularly sad hymn. But I saw it myself, again at church, onChristmas Eve, and then Jason and I both saw the same thing happen on two occasions last week.
At first I was quite puzzled. She's far too young to be displaying such deep empathy; she hands toys to her playmates at the babysitter's house when they cry, but that's as far as it goes, and that's normal for her age. But then I realized that she's not crying over the lyrics. While I don't know what hymn she heard that first time, it was probably about the suffering of Christ or the suffering of the world, and how could she relate to either? The last time I saw her well up with tears over music, it was "Hallelujah" being played in the movie "Shrek"; I doubt she has any idea what a broken, tortured heart would go through. And it lyrically made no sense whatsoever for the other two songs, which were"Hotel California" and, inexplicably, "Joy to the World."
So I then realized that it's the music itself, and when you think aboutit, it makes perfect sense. Lullabies to sing babies to sleep. Peppy nursery rhymes to make them laugh and dance and clap. Why wouldn't a sad song, therefore, evoke feelings of melancholy, even in such a young child? It all goes back to the saying of "music soothes the savage breast", or the popular misquotation "music soothes the savage beast." Either one can ring true, and to think that youth would preclude that would just be foolish. Still, one of those things you never consider, or would even believe, until you see it for yourself.
Veronica cries when she hears sad songs.
I'm not talking a full-scale bawling, which may indicate a tantrum, physical discomfort, or displeasure about something in general. No, she doesn't make a sound. Her eyes just well up with tears that eventually spill down her cheeks while she remains silent. At first I didn't quite believe it, as my parents were the first to witness this. They had taken her to church some months back, without Jason or me present, and reported that Veronica had cried over a particularly sad hymn. But I saw it myself, again at church, onChristmas Eve, and then Jason and I both saw the same thing happen on two occasions last week.
At first I was quite puzzled. She's far too young to be displaying such deep empathy; she hands toys to her playmates at the babysitter's house when they cry, but that's as far as it goes, and that's normal for her age. But then I realized that she's not crying over the lyrics. While I don't know what hymn she heard that first time, it was probably about the suffering of Christ or the suffering of the world, and how could she relate to either? The last time I saw her well up with tears over music, it was "Hallelujah" being played in the movie "Shrek"; I doubt she has any idea what a broken, tortured heart would go through. And it lyrically made no sense whatsoever for the other two songs, which were"Hotel California" and, inexplicably, "Joy to the World."
So I then realized that it's the music itself, and when you think aboutit, it makes perfect sense. Lullabies to sing babies to sleep. Peppy nursery rhymes to make them laugh and dance and clap. Why wouldn't a sad song, therefore, evoke feelings of melancholy, even in such a young child? It all goes back to the saying of "music soothes the savage breast", or the popular misquotation "music soothes the savage beast." Either one can ring true, and to think that youth would preclude that would just be foolish. Still, one of those things you never consider, or would even believe, until you see it for yourself.
posted by Maranie @ 9:52 PM
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