Common Senses

The other day I was at work, as I am most days and a song came on the radio. I don’t really believe that the particular song had any kind of significance to anybody else in my vicinity, or if it did they didn’t react as I had. The song reminded me of my little sister who I haven’t seen in over a year, but in that moment it was as if she was right there with me. It got me thinking about all these moments in our life that have been engraved in our brains because of a song, or movie that was playing when these moments occurred. Although I was grateful to have that kind of association it made me think about when I was younger. How I didn’t have access to music whenever I liked growing up, or being able to click to “ Season 10 episode 17” of friends to feel what I felt when I was watching for the first time. Even if it was years after the original date. I’ve grown accustomed to being able to bend these sorts of situations to my will sorta speak, but what about when I couldn’t? How now we use sight and sound a lot more frequently because in comparison they’re more easily recreated than the others. I thought about 200 years ago when you went and saw a star perform and it might be the first and last time in your life that you ever hear them sing that song, or say those last words again. Would I reverse engineer the process in my head? Maybe then I would have thought about how the air smelled when the last note came to an end. Is it possible that when I hear the deafening silence of the night, that I remember the last scene of something that will never been seen or remembered by anybody in attendance the same way ever again. That could be sad, how something moves you so deeply, but you never see it the same way you did again. Or maybe that’s what makes it so beautiful, that the moment is entirely ours, to manipulate and mold to how ever we are feeling in that moment. It wasn’t because it’s kept alive to refer to whenever you see fit, but because it lived inside of you only for you. I’ve never been married but I know that the bride and groom select a wedding song that culminates the best day of their lives when they have their first dance. I imagine the purpose is so that the song will always be something sacred to them, barring how the marriage turns out down the road that song will always mean something when it comes on. But what if instead of hearing it, it was sight? Or maybe it is touch, or smell? How her dress felt the moment you first embraced, the way the sun was setting when you were beginning the rest of your life? There are a multitude of examples that could be interchangeable, but I guess I think my question is: Have we neglected our senses, due to the fact we have opportunities to make these memories extremely tangible? And if so: does that take away the significance of it all? That we have it on stand by whenever we need it. I promise you I’m not complaining because I love that I can feel so close to my family wherever I am as I’m sure most people are. I just don’t want to neglect all other senses just because it is easier to. When I was a kid I swore by the logical fact that any more than one is simply better. I think that kid might have been on to something, maybe five is better than two.