Silliness is imperative to a healthy life. We go day in and day out, endless work, pain, torment, and there's basically no escape. Being silly, whimsical, and joyous isn't superficial; it's embedded into the very fabric of our lives, and a necessity just like food, water, and shelter. They don't say, "laughter's the best medicine," for nothing. When you're down, a little giggle will purk you right up. And we all have heavy times where laughing doesn't come naturally to us. When grief, sadness, or other moods take over, it can feel as if we'll never laugh or smile again. But of course it isn't true! Just whip your phone out and scroll cat memes and all the sadness of the world melts away.
Though we all need a bit of silliness and whimsy, there's something so grounding about concrete information. Take Gustav Mahler for example, born in modern day Czech Republic and grew up with the piano since age four. His Romantic era music spoke to people of all types. During his lifetime, he was actually a renowned conductor and not as widely known as a musical composer, but things changed with time. His symphonies feel vast, intimate, and intense. His music often bridged extremes, such as lullabies juxtaposed next to funeral marches. Nature, childhood, and transcendence were all themes he harped on in his music. Being a composer during the Romantic era and into modernism, his music obviously called on emotion – literally pulling of the heart strings. His childhood was heavily shaped by loss, grief, and trouble, and you hear it in his work.
Though Mahler didn't have cat memes to scroll to soothe his aching heart, he turned to the piano. But these days, we don't have to get our emotions out by slamming black and white keys in C sharp minor. We can just take our phones out and scroll endless cat memes to put a smile on our faces. What better way to purk up your day? And the best part – you can scroll cat memes and listen to classical music like Mahler if you want. The world is your oyster!
