On Tuesday I was folding laundry and I remembered that I’d been wanting to listen to a podcast a colleague sent me.  For whatever reason, I fold laundry in silence – I don’t think about it; I’m already occupied, right?  So I have no idea why, on this occasion, this thing I’d been wanting to listen to popped into my head.  Immediately I thought about listening to a violin concerto or something instead.  But my friend’s been asking me about this podcast for about six weeks, so after the little discussion in my head played out I went that route.

Surely most people listen to something when they fold the laundry.

Surely that’s especially true of people who write music-themed blogs.

But it wasn’t music that prompted me to fill my dead-air via the aural channel; it was a podcast and duty to a friend.  And, as far as I can recall, this was the first time I’ve ever prompted myself to intentionally fill the silence of a laundry folding moment.

I realized as I’ve thought about this over the past two days (yes, I’ve thought about this over the past two days) that listening to things is not my preferred way to consume them.  This applies to my web-surfing habits as well.  Though I embed some videos on this blog, generally speaking I avoid video content online, and it’s extremely rare that I listen to a podcast.  If there’s a transcript of a video available I will always go that route.  I have a strong preference for reading.  As I said not long after starting this blog; I am a word person.

Still, cultivating the musical is one of my major motives behind my writing here.  What is it about playing music and listening to music that tap into such different passions within me?

I have very little passion, most days, for listening to music.

But I’m quite passionate about playing the violin.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan