There are a couple drafts of things from Manchester I never talked about, so why not talk about it now?
Picking up from last time –
So, I’d wandered around by Canal Street, which is apparently the famous gay area of Manchester.
And my new friend from the street welcomed me on in, and I got to meet his friends, and have these fun random conversations – one of which revolved around the question, “If you had to choose to live without music or color, which would you pick?”
I said I’d live without color because music is the soundtrack to our lives.
Imagine your favorite shows or movies without music. Every time it sets the scene, builds the tension, amplifies the happiness, etc. – that’s all gone. Musical theater, and all your favorite popstars don’t exist without music. Did you grow up as a screaming fan for Michael Jackson? Have a good memory of an amazing concert you saw? Do you love the cast recording for Avenue Q? That’s all gone now.
You’re now exercising without music for the rest of your life (and some studies even show people actually run a little faster when they listen to fast music). Every band you hear at a marathon, gone. Every song you put on in your iPhone to get you through a tough workout? See ya.
Even when you do CPR, they teach you to do your compressions to the beat of “Staying Alive.” So, have fun just feeling things out without beats guiding your way.
Your big life moments that seemed marked by songs of the time? …You don’t get that nostalgia when you hear that special song. So, if you had a song that helped you deal with a death or a breakup or even good things – that helped you celebrate a promotion or whatever… they no longer exist.
Your favorite middle or high school dances (or even dancing at galas when you’re an adult) – they no longer happen… or they happen in some weird silent way. I know I maybe take color for granted. And it is certainly used for some important things, I can’t imagine a world without music…
Then again, how would I feel if everything were grey? The person who made the case that he couldn’t live without color thought that basically happiness would be gone. He’s like, “Can you imagine basking in the sun without seeing the yellow? What about sunset or sunrise? What about the way stars sparkle in the sky? What about looking deep into the eyes of the person you love? You no longer see that brown or blue or green or whatever color they have. What about food? What about all the things you use color for?”
While I generally agreed that it would be very odd to be at the beach with no color, I kind of made the argument that technically it’s vitamin D that is supposed to be giving us good feelings from the sun. But he rightly made the argument that, “Have you ever experienced vitamin D from the sun without any color? How could you know what that’s like?” (And I don’t, of course.)
Also, colors generally give us information. We can have clear street signs without them. We can know the bottom light means go and the top means stop. We can know the octagon means stop… And we can still read and have different shades of grey. But still. Colors can be helpful.
And just as there are studies that music helps with certain things (and music therapist is even a job), there are also studies that colors make people feel certain things.
It seems they both would be tough worlds to live in. But obviously there are people who live in those worlds every day because they’re blind, or even colorblind, or because they’re deaf. And you can obviously thrive as a blind or deaf person. So, they’d all be handle-able. But if they whole world changed to be without color or be without music, things would change. Jobs wouldn’t exist. Places wouldn’t exist. (Would we need music stores? My college wouldn’t even exist… Dance studios? Do we dance with no music? Maybe we do. I don’t know.)
Anyway, it was an interesting question and I enjoyed my night talking with the guys. (And I’d love your thoughts on music v. color in the comments, if you’d like to give ’em!)