Rabbit Trails

 

It's easy to get lost, so why not get lost in good things?

Rabbit trails.

Not “here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail.”

I’m talking when you get away from what you originally started reading or looking up because you found something related that distracted you, which caused you to start looking into that distraction, which led to another interesting tidbit that you just had to look up, which led to …you know.

I have very frequently fallen victim to rabbit trails. I am a fan of Alex Kershaw’s books, particularly his World War II books. I recently read Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II, a fascinating story of four of the most decorated soldiers of World War II, all members of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, which produced four Medal of Honor winners: Maurice “Footsie” Britt, Michael Daly, Keith Ware, and Audie Murphy.

Murphy was the most decorated American soldier in World War II, who returned home and became an actor. I’d grown up watching Murphy in cowboy movies, and even as a child knew he was not a great actor by any means – he was short, didn’t have a lot of expression, and a voice that didn’t exactly command attention the way John Wayne’s voice did.

But reading about Murphy’s heroism led me to check out a book on Murphy, to read about his life. Which in turn led me to look up and watch some of his movies, particularly the one where he played himself in the movie To Hell and Back, based on his 1949 memoirs of the same name.

But in reading about Murphy, I got sidetracked into other actors who’d fought in World War II, like Lee Marvin, who was in a movie called Donovan’s Reef, which my father and I watched what felt like 100 times because it seemed like every time we turned the TV on, Donovan’s Reef was playing. It became a running joke between us, a memory I treasure.

But that led me to other movies with Marvin. The Dirty Dozen, of course, but also Cat Ballou, for which Marvin won an Oscar as Best Actor, although in his acceptance speech he gave credit to his horse, Smokey, who may well have been the best actor in the whole movie – the horse played drunk better than Marvin did.

Which led me to wondering why horses seem to ‘act’ so well in so many movies and TV shows … well, you get the idea.

Welcome to the Rabbit Trail.

This came up the other day when I was reading an article that referenced a 2023 study by music psychologist Dr. Michael Bonshor from the University of Sheffield (England) that determined the “Happiest song of all time.”

Dr Bonshor found that the most uplifting songs contain a tempo of 137 beats per minute (bpm) and an ordinary verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. However, what makes human beings latch onto a song is an unpredictable element like a key change or a “seventh chord.”

“Previous studies have found songs are perceived as happy if they are in a major key, with a sweet spot of approximately 137 beats per minute,” Bonshor is quoted as saying. “We like ‘7th chords’ as they add interest – regular chords use three notes, whereas ‘seventh chords’ add an extra note which provides a sense of musical ‘tension’ and ‘relief.’”

The happiest song of all time? The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.”

Others on the list included some classic from my era, like “I Got You (I Feel Good)” by the Godfather of Soul, James Brown; “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire; “YMCA” by the Village People.

Can’t argue with science, right?

I grew up around music. My family knows that when I find something I like – music, a book, a movie – I’ll run it in the ground. If you listen to my kids, you’d think I played nothing but Hall and Oates when they were little. Even now, when I’m fixing Saturday morning breakfast for the family my soundtrack of choice for years has been Al Jarreau, or lately the Gypsy Kings.

I can listen to the music of Acoustic Alchemy any time, particularly the early stuff before original founder Nick Webb died. I could go on and on, because I have been told I have an eclectic taste in music.

The point is that I don’t seem to get tired of the stuff that I enjoy.

On the other hand – still on that rabbit trail – I came across another study, “The Effects of Different Types of Music on Mood, Tension, and Mental Clarity,’’ a 1998 paper in Alternative Methods of Health and Therapy. A total of 144 subjects completed a psychological profile before and after listening for 15 minutes to four types of music (grunge rock, classical, New Age, and designer).

With grunge rock music, “significant increases were found in hostility, sadness, tension, and fatigue, and significant reductions were observed in caring, relaxation, mental clarity, and vigor.” According to one definition of Grunge Rock, the music features “distorted electric guitar” and lyrics that are “typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, neglect, betrayal, social and emotional isolation, addiction, psychological trauma, and a desire for freedom.”

I admit I have not listened to a lot of – if any – grunge rock. According to Wikipedia (take if for what it’s worth), bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains – bands I have heard of – made grunge rock “the most popular form of hard rock music during the 1990s” (the period when I was apparently listening to nothing but Hall and Oates or Acoustic Alchemy).

It’s art, so it’s hard to say why one type of music, or even one particular song, moves one person and not another. My wife loves art - the picture and sculpture kind - and I have learned to appreciate it more as I have shared in her love of it. We spend a lot of time in galleries when we travel, particularly in New Orleans. But even after these many years together, she will love a piece of art that I look at and see nothing but colors on a canvas.

That’s the thing about art and music, about beauty: it’s hard to articulate. But it definitely affects us. I go back to music, and it actually makes me feel good to listen to a song I really like, no matter how many times I’ve heard it.

Researchers have found that people experience greater life satisfaction when they enjoy beauty, be it art on the wall or music or just seen while standing in a valley looking at nature.

It makes me thing of a verse in the book of Philippians that says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Paul could have gone on and on and listed some specific things, no doubt. But I don’t think the point is to be that strict. The point is to simply find the things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and make that a part of your life.

Think about them, enjoy them, and try to stay away from the stuff that is not.

That’s the kind of rabbit trail that’s worth going down.