A short summer ramble...
More of a share of a great article really...but I'd be remiss not to comment - at least a little...
Question...
Have you ever heard of an idiophone?
Hint - it's an incredible musical device...fills in spaces and gaps in music...fully self-contained...many are beautifully and ergonomically designed...mobile...easy to use...intuitive...
Clearly an amazing new product for our digital world....
Made by...Apple? Microsoft? Samsung? Other?????
Have you guessed yet?
If you know - KUDOS!!
If you don't let me share what it really is... "An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the instrument as a whole vibrating--without the use of strings or membranes...."
Bottom line - it's a wood block, a triangle, a marimba; it's an amplified cactus or a musical saw; it's a mallet or a hammer and even a vibraphone and, of course, cymbals...to name just a few...
Nary a power cord in sight...not even a battery...certainly no chip sets or screens...big or small....
And idiophones have been around as long as humankind and maybe even before if you have followed some of the primate research of the past few years.
Why do I share this? Because I loved the "Letter of Recommendation" from the Sunday New York Times Magazine..."Egg Shakers."
Jon Mooallem, the author, writes about his experience playing along with his favorite rock music and shares the following personal revelation...as he describes the feeling he has playing his Egg Shakers (a type of idiophone), his experience he says is "not about glory, but about connectedness; the feeling of making a small but constant contribution to the machinery of a larger whole."
And that hit home for me...
Connectedness...constant contribution...larger whole...
How often do we Digibabble ourselves into believing that our very digital world has us all connected 24/7 by default...that we are constantly adding to the larger whole because of all the data we spew...
And as my readers know - I believe we confuse "plugged in" with being connected...as I often advocate to unplug and reconnect...
So here is the good news about Egg Shakers - you can stay plugged in and still connect - with yourself, with great music, with the world...in fact, you can be the center of it all...which, if you have by this time read the article, will be apparent and if not - please do - I promise you will be inspired....
Bottom line - the Egg Shaker moment can help us reconnect in powerful ways that keep us grounded and focused...listen:
Get yourself grounded and you can navigate even the stormiest roads in peace. Steve Goodier
And there you have it...
Try it...I have...put on some good music you love...good, deep, powerful, raw, real music...(by the way, the source is no doubt digital) pick up a stick, a couple of spoons or use your palms and fill in the blank spots....
You will add to the beautiful music and ground yourself just by being a little piece of a much more complex whole...but Oh what a special little...non-digibabble piece you will be....
And, if I may be so bold, your actions will be "digital"...as when you are using your digits.
What do you think?