The Soundtrack of My Life

I laughed the other day as Himself flipped through channels, a character on a program talked about his "Big Glory" moments, how the "theme music" he heard in his head at such moments, (this was, I think, the moment when you discover that the one you love loves you.)

And his was the theme from a sports show from when he was a child.

Delightful, I wasn't sure there wasn't, but I didn't know that anyone else actually did that, you know, selected his own soundtrack.
 I hear people talk about music they associate with certain moments or feelings, but that's usually because, as in films sometimes, it was "source" music, music that is actually and naturally occurring, rather than background added in.

So many people have "their song" because it was the first one to which they danced, or the thing that was playing on the Muzak in the waiting room while his child was born, or the hymn that will always be "Grandma's funeral"because that's what they heard at the funeral parlor.

But this character had chosen his soundtrack, consciously - I have done that, and I'm glad to know other people do. ("Other people do?" you wonder.... well, yes, I know the character isn't real, thank you very much, but a quirky trait or habit in a sitcom is almost always something from a writer or producer's own life or that of a friend.)

Oh, yeah, there are some tunes that were unbidden, Thompson Twins Doctor, Doctor, Phil Collin singing Somethin' in the Air Tonight, but mostly I lay down the tracks deliberately.

Having grown up in a noisier environment than any that Himself, for instance, and I'm sure many other people can imagine, I'm fairly good at shutting out other noise and hearing what I choose to hear instead.

And in moments of  triumph, I hear the finale from the Sibelius Fifth. Oh, do I hear it. Sometimes I have actually played a recording at such times, but I don't need to, my brain's iPod or cassette deck or Victrola cranks up and out it pours.

Really, is there any music that speaks more of triumph after struggle? that better evokes that heart-swelling joy of success that if we are fortunate, we occasionally experience in our lives?

So what did I do? That's right, I not only heard it in my head, but played it on the computer, oh, a half dozen, oh, maybe TEN times before I was done that evening.

So do I have an earworm?

Yes I do. Going on four days now.

But could there BE a better earworm?