Someone once told me that poetry is the sound of two nightingales dueling, and I imagine the same case can be made for music: the creator draws a pattern of beauty and truth, wrestles it from his vest, and launches it into the air, perfectly hopeful it will soar. The music then arrests its hearer, unassuming and defenseless, and the aforementioned duel begins.

That's all music is, really: an honest, open, two-line connection in which the producer and his audience communicate to each other with a song as the medium. In every instance, the two meet, and subsequently, learn from one another. It can be argued what they learn, but they most certainly do learn. They grow. They adapt to the newness of music and change. In such a metaphor, music could even be war - ancient, competitive, inspiring, territorial. Music stands as the ground in which people can discover one another.

If this is true, then music must be not only important, but also necessary. Music must live, not merely exist. Without it, we are colorless. Without it, we are speakers, not poets - men and women with briefcases, new ties, bagels, and newspapers parading in a self-constructed jungle of habit and the sheer ordinary. We become defined by accomplishments and deadlines rather than rhythms and verses.

Music is primal - maybe not essential to existence, but essential to life. Our hearts beat in rhythm, our language crafted in song, our bodies sculpted in symmetry - we are a living, breathing score. With such beauty, we can certainly expect responsibility. And that responsibility is to share what is born within us, to connect with others through the indefinable power of music.

Luckily, it does not decay. Music is not just about discovery, but rediscovery. Rejuvenation. So, listen to one of your dad's favorite albums. Buy a new mp3. Find an old mixed tape and give it a spin.

Duel.

-Huff

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