Listening to the old Vinyls
Do you remember listening to your parents or grandparents records? Old musical tunes imprinted forever on circular pieces of polyvinyl that are inscribed with modulated grooves. I remember them fondly as a kid. Then years and decades later, during a tumultuous war filled era of my life we lost the gramophone. I bought one for my dad a few years ago so that he could replay some of those old tunes on the records that he had so safely salvaged from that era. It was amazing to watch the needle touch the groove and play the desired track. Track after track we listened to the music from forgotten times, reliving albeit briefly our youthful days long gone and noting who we were when we first heard the song or melody.
The grooves on the vinyls are very much like the grooves of old memories within our minds. The record keeps spinning as we recall events and experiences of the past over and over again. Some songs may not have hit a chord with me much like experiences I just as soon forget. Yet many trigger wonderful and warm feelings. So too is the nature of old memories. Some are sad and some are happy. My mind is the gramophone that spins the record of events and the memories are the grooved imprinted tracks of ambiguous memories. If my record is scratched then so too are the memories. Fragmented, inaudible and lack of clarity.
I find that the use of recall of the past helps tremendously to clear out old hurts or unresolved feelings. Bringing them forth from places deep within the mind, buried within the past I confront the tune long hidden within the grooved track of my subconscious. Once revealed it is just like listening to those old songs with fresh ears. The melody of the tune is different as it now is out of place and out of time and no longer has a spell on me as it may have had when the song was first entertained. So too that experience in all its harshness and energetic passion has shifted and remains out of time, out of sequence, out of a power to hold on to me now in the present. Do you remember when you first heard that song, perhaps on the radio or in a live concert performance? Do you remember the spellbound magic it held over you? Well what happens to it when you hear that very old song in present day. You listen to it once, or twice and then let it go and move on. You find new songs, create new memories, new grooved tracks. When i have a memory of the past no matter how painful, it now has no power over me in the present moment.
Released i am freer to create new grooves, new tracks, new experiences. Just because the grooved vinyl is relatively obsolete, does not mean that it is dead. Just changed form into more digital and faster creating memories. Unfortunately with this increased speed, it is harder to pin down and acknowledge. In a busy world all we can do is let go of the past. Let go of the old records and replace then with the new. That is the nature of change, it is certain and unrelenting. Those records were incapable of adding or subtracting tracks, much like our older selves.Yet in present day we are able to do just that. Add and subtract experiences and memories just as quickly as we change the tracks or channel.
Ready for new grooves and new experiences? I am….
