Alison's Brain

I heard this great documentary on CBC yesterday called "Alison's Brain".   It is about a music teacher who had a massive aneurysm in her brain and needed surgery to repair it.  After the surgery, she was unable to speak or move or do any of the things we take for granted.  Months went by with very little progress.

Her daughter was walking her around the hospital in a wheelchair when they came upon a piano.  There was sheet music on the piano.  Alison's daughter wheeled her up to the keys and Alison held her hands over them and then played the piano.  This was the first inkling her family had that "Alison was still in there".

It was quite inspirational to hear Alison speak about the experience and encouraging for me at this time in my life, as this is the experience we're going through now.  I read to my husband every day, and the nurse said that reading is very therapeutic, so I will keep doing it even when he says he doesn't want me to.  When a person can't speak or write, it is really hard to figure out what is going on inside.  I ask my husband sometimes, "are you in there?"  He smiles, but he can't answer me yet.  A friend of mine said, "small steps".  That's a good philosophy for me.  I want things to move along more quickly, but I am powerless to make that happen.

Music is such a mysterious and wonderful process.  There was another piece on the same show about profoundly deaf people and their experience with music.  There was another piece about how music helps reduce anxiety for autistic people.  Years ago when I was doing my master's degree we talked about whether music sends messages -- what about music makes us emotional?  Are there "sad sounds" and "happy sounds"?  I don't think we were able to come up with any real answers.  We played music and asked what emotion people were feeling -- there was no consistency if you didn't have lyrics or a title.

Here's an additional note:  Senior Drama is doing scenes about censorship and free speech and one group chose to do the song from "Les Miserables" "Do You Hear the People Sing".  Just hearing the beginning got me stirred up -- I felt inspired and emotional.  Like I can't hear "Solidarity Forever" without getting so emotional, that I can't finish.  Is it the music or the lyrics or the two working together?  Am I associating it with something else?  How can sounds make me feel something?