Thread by @dcpetterson

I did something today to combat my anger and terror regarding the coronavirus.

I've lost weight. My heart has been thumping. I stand, and I almost faint.

My breathing is good. I don't have a fever. I'm not infected (yet). I'm just panicked.

I've been this way for weeks.

1/13

I can't change how the world works. I can't fix stupid. I can't help the world, except by speaking. Yet staying informed is harming me, and my health is suffering even though I'm isolating and I'm healthy and I still have a job.

I did something about it today.

2/13

My doctor said anxiety meds take 2-3 weeks to help. I need to do something before that.

I did.

Here's something you may not know.

Music is magic.

It really is. It's magic.

It has limited powers. But those powers are real.

Let me explain.

3/13

Psychologists and neurologists will tell you that playing music--a guitar, a piano- -singing- -dancing- -drums- -even just rhythmically banging pots--it changes how your brain functions. It alters your neural system. It changes you.

4/13

Your neurons affect your muscles. Your brain affects the chemistry of everything in your body. Changing your mood alters you.

Playing an instrument involves every single part of your brain. Both hemispheres. Your emotions. Your musculature. Your memory. Your awareness.

5/13

There is nothing you can do that affects your consciousness more than playing a musical instrument. It puts you into an altered state of consciousness unlike anything else. Every other part of reality falls away. All that is left is

-- magic.

Music is magic.

6/13

I used to play guitar and keyboards. I used to be pretty good.

But I could get into a flow, and play better than my training and skill could account for.

That's the Magic that anyone who plays an instrument can tell you about. In the right moments, you're a music god.

7/13

I haven't played in years. Far too many years.

There's a long and sad story there. I won't tell it now. There are people responsible for why I no longer play. Fuck them. Let's move on.

.

I used to be really good. I wrote some great songs. No, you've never heard them.

8/13

My wife told me to pull out my guitar. It's a 12-string Takamine Dreadnaught. I haven't touched it in too many years.

It took ten minutes to tune it. I'm out of practice.

I had to trim my fingernails. And I have no calluses on my left hand. (Ask someone else about that.)

9/13

I didn't play long. I'm really rusty. I played a typical 4-chord progression, G-Em-Am-D, over and over. This is what 90% of 60's rock was about.

Took a deep breath, and tried the opening bars of Classical Gas.

I really sucked. 😂 It's been too long.

10/13

I didn't really care how much it sucked. For the entire time I held that guitar, it was my world. Everything else fell away. There was music, and I was one with that. Nothing else mattered. The world dropped away. Nothing else mattered.

11/13

My heart feels better now. The dizziness is gone. I suspect the symptoms will come back, but I have a treatment now that I know.

Together, we can change the world. Not this second, maybe. But our voices matter. And we must have moments of self-care.

12/13

Find your bliss. Maybe it's music. Maybe it's dancing. Maybe it's video games. Maybe painting or yoga or screaming into the dark. Something that involves every part of your attention and makes the world drop away.

It will give you the strength to go on.

13/13

PS Something like 20 years ago, I wrote a short story about the sacred magic of music. I'm a better writer today. I need to re-write the thing and see if I can get it published.