The Power of Music

 While I was recovering from surgery,

My 2^nd-5^th graders watched the movie “Coco.”

“Coco” is set in Mexico and focuses on the importance of both music and family.

I won’t go into all the details in case you haven’t seen the movie,

But I will share one major spoiler because it is such a poignant moment:

Throughout the movie, Coco, the great-grandmother, is silent from old age.

Yet in a beautiful testimony to the power of music,

She begins to sing as a song from her childhood is played.

The song unlocks her voice and her memory,

And she speaks.

 

I’ve seen this happen in real life.

Persons of old age, dementia, or neuro-divergence speak nothing,

Yet music stirs something in them that mere words cannot.

 

It is a very powerful thing.

 

The animators of “Coco” do a beautiful job depicting the moment when the music wakes up Coco.

At first, her hands respond, and then her face.

And when her hands respond, it reminds me of my G-mama listening to music.

G-mama wasn’t non-verbal, but her hands and face lit up when my mom played the piano.

She’d sit there and pat along,

Clasping hand in hand,

Sometimes keeping the beat,

Sometimes not,

But it didn’t matter.

The music was inside her.

It’s a simple memory.

But a lovely memory.

And I am thankful that an animated movie can bring it back.

 

Dear God: Our brains are amazing. The ways we remember. The things we recall. How some things plant themselves permanently while other things are easily forgotten is a mystery to me. Thank you for that mystery. And thank you for the mystery and power of music to tap into places that we didn’t know possible. Use music to unite us, God, in real time and in memory. And guard our hearts and brains in you. Always. Amen.