Column: Something About Nothing

If life were a song, would you sing it? One night I was watching “Glee” and the thought crossed my mind that it would be fun to burst into song on the occasions in my life that were sad, mad, glad or bad. Of course, the people around me would cover their ears, but I have to think it would make our life circumstances better.

In case you are not familiar with “Glee,” it is a musical TV drama series on Fox that focuses the New Directions Glee Club at a fictional high school in Ohio. It focuses on social relationships in a high school.

Life always seems better with music. We watch a movie and we can tell by the music if we are going to cry during a sappy scene or our hearts are going to race with excitement as the trauma or action unfolds.

My soap opera plays the right music in the background to sucker me into a scene. I cry, laugh and hide my head according to the music on the screen. I can’t imagine that the movie and television scenes would have as much impact if there was not music playing in the background.

German novelist Berthould Auerbach said that music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. I know that is true in my life.

As strange as some of the plots on “Glee” are, I find myself wishing I would have had a song to accompany me down the high school corridor during my first crush. I would have belted out “I Wanna be Bobby’s Girl” loud and clear.

My girlfriend could have sang “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to” when she broke up with her boyfriend at a party one night. Of course had we lived in the “Glee” world all of our friends would have joined in and our hearts would have been a little less broken. That is right before we were hit with a slushy.

Can you imagine belting out a song while you are in labor and having your baby? Would it have made the pain better? At one time or another “Take This Job and Shove It” probably would seem appropriate at our place of employment.

Yes, I think life would be better if we kept a song in our heart all the time.

One recent Sunday morning I visited a church where I know the pastor. She took one look at me and started singing “All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.” I joined in and we started doing actions.

One of the actions is hopping on one foot while tapping the sole of the other. One of the parishioners who is around my age made the statement “I have to get in shape so I can do that this fall. You two should make a video we could follow.”

With smiles on our faces and a song in our hearts we continued into church. It was a “Glee” moment. Again I thought “Life would be so much better if we could always put our feelings to music and turn it into a song.”

Imagine walking to work on a beautiful sunny day. “Sunny day, keeping the clouds away,” would resonate in the neighborhood. The neighbors on their way to their cars or their walk would sing the next line. We would be skipping and singing down the sidewalk before we walked into the life of the day. Wouldn’t that start our day out better than the news?

Flash mobs are the latest craze. I saw my first flash mob on Oprah. It was fabulous. The Black Eyed Peas created a flash mob dance to surprise Oprah on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

A flash mob is a group of people who assemble in a public place for the purpose of doing something unusual. Music seems to be a flash mob activity. A message is posted on Facebook or elsewhere on the Internet and people show up at a certain place at a given time to do something unusual. Maybe in our hearts we really would like “Glee” moments but don’t have the courage to belt into the song of the moment that would make us feel better.

The bottom line is that most of the time music makes us feel better. Music lifts our mood, helps in times of illness and even influences our health. Music therapy is used to alleviate stress, manage pain, enhance memory and help people heal.

I believe in music.

Oh, I believe in love.

Music is love, and love is music, if you know what I mean.

“People who believe in music are the happiest people I’ve ever seen.” Mac Davis gave us those beautiful words.

If you don’t feel like belting it out you can keep that “Glee” moment in your heart: Keep a song in your heart and keep on singing.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.