More than anything, we are divided. We speak different languages, see different things, live in different places, hate different groups. Our differences should bring us closer, but they seem to do nothing but divide us.

Now, we don’t have time to unpack all of that, so let's just focus on a common thread that stitches the tapestry of the world. This thread is found in every culture, and I’ve never met someone completely untouched by it. It can bind and unravel, it’s a cry to rally, it’s a tool, an addiction, a liferaft. It’s a pleasure, a pastime, a career, an experience, an entire trip pumping through your speakers. 

Music. Music that fills your headphones and your heart. Music that’s been a part of you since you first heard it and couldn’t stop thinking about it all day, a first hit into a full blown addiction. Music that you heard and crinkled your nose at, songs that you skipped that come back at the right time and let you fall in love with them despite a bad first impression. Music that makes the bad times better, melodies that turn on the light in the darkest hours and open the curtains when you can’t.

Everybody’s got songs, collecting them like middle aged women collect candles. Some you hold close to your heart, songs to cherish and protect. These are the ones attached to memories, the song that played on your road trip that blared from the car, out the windows, into the blue sky as you shouted along, the song that you danced with your best friends to at three a.m. when you all really should have been asleep but were too pumped with energy to even think about it, the song that came on the radio just as you were thought about it. 

There’s stupid songs, songs you listen to when you just don’t care anymore and would never admit that you like. Shiny songs sung for the radio, the same four chords that confess the same type of love for the same type of person. Songs that shower sparks over your heart and light a fire, the kind that let you get pumped up properly.

Everyone likes music. It is found in every corner of the world, instruments and voices bound in something beautiful. Different songs touch different hearts, a variety of lyrics and measures connecting with a variety of people.

There are pretentious people that will try to tell you only one type of music is valid, and everything else is garbage. These people usually have the worst music taste of all. My philosophy towards music is simple: if you like it, it’s good.

We’ve all been touched by music, and made some as well. We all played recorder in third or fourth grade (for some reason) and we’ve all shouted along to some different songs. Some people have even made a career of music, letting their voices, lungs, and hands grace the world. For these people, music is their life.

Music is revolution and love, a good time, a bad time, a treasure to be found. Music is a heartbeat, a heartbreak, an adrenaline rush, a bit of laughter, everything you need it to be when you need it most.

More than anything, we are divided, but music stitches us all together, a common thread in a complex existence.