obstinate.org

Just last night I had hours of lovely conversation deep into the night listening to Jazz. Nothing in particular that I can think of, but sitting next to the roaring fireplace sipping on a lovely Zinfandel into the wee hours of the morning, the situation was framed perfectly by the music.

Had I known any of the tracks, it would of been ruined. Instead of concentrating on my company, I would of instead been thinking about the track, or the one coming up next. The way that the next track, and even the current track was a total unknown made every second a surprise.

The whimsical nature of a random surprises like this tickles with joy.

Every once and awhile something really incredible comes on in the background of your life and you think to yourself “wow that is just fab”. Not that the song is great by itself, but it is great for right then. It might even not be particularly good at any other time or place.

That isn’t to say the opposite does not occur. “Smack my Bitch up” while taking my grandmother to the airport is not the type of thing you look forward to. But at least it is memorable, because it was a surprise.

To take a cheesy sci-fi quote: “to know the future is to be trapped by it“. In other words, life is incredibly boring without endless surprise. Background, random radio provides that. Usually.