May 03, 2012

What Does This Make You Think Of?

One side effect of not carpooling: Molly & I don’t have to compromise on radio choices. That means I spend more time listening to classical music in the car… and by extension, so do the kids.

Every now and then, Alex interrogates me when the music is on: “What does this make you think of?” I have to give him an answer, no matter how much I was paying attention to driving instead of to the music. This must be something that he does in music class at school. Occasionally I can get him to tell me what the music makes him think of. Typical of a six-year-old, the answers are either profound or nonsensical. I can’t decide which. Some of the more memorable:

“This makes me think of a pretty forest, and there’s a girl walking through it. But there’s something scary… there’s a wolf hiding and it’s going to try to get the girl.”

“This makes me think of remembering. Of remembering something that hasn’t happened yet.”

“This makes me think of a happy time, but someone you love has died.” (This is the only one where I remember the music that was playing… one of the movements of Vivalidi’s Summer.)

In the Cherry Trees


Written by Brian Dewey.

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