I’ve heard about Pavlovian response…don’t really understand how it comes to work, really….but I was listening to some music the other day and thought how much I’m like one of those trained dogs.

Of course….I’M A MAN!!…so I’m not really like one of the trained dogs….it’s just that these songs come on and I’m transported.

It’s my “call to joy” that can hit at the most unexpected moments.

And it’s not necessarily the full song that can be transporting. It can be a section or a swell, an unexpected dynamic….a “beat with a funky break”.

This is the song that started me thinking along those lines…

“empty pages” Traffic

It’s something about that first line…”found someone who can comfort me…” that really sets me off towards feeling better about whatever my situation is holding at the moment…and if I’m in a good mood already, well…it’s like MSG on Chinese food. It accentuates.

Or check this one out…

Just to set the scene…imagine a pre-adolescent, with a pre-adolescent voice… hitting all the high notes still, singing in the back of a 1967 Ford Fairlane station wagon…and this song comes on.

It didn’t take me long to learn all the lyrics…even if I didn’t understand what they were really about…and soon I was singing along with Betty Wright…singing a song about “losing your man to the ‘Clean Up Woman’ “.

That wasn’t really part of my experience as a pre-adolescent…but I loved singing that song about a lady who really kept her house in order. It’s a good thing to be clean.

It made me happy to get funky in the family ride…bopping along and shouting out “JUST MAKIN’ IT EASY…FOR THE CLEAN UP WOMAN!!”.

My parents must have loved it.

“Clean Up Woman” Betty Wright

I’m not alone in finding joy in music.

Lots of people are in love with music. It’s not uncommon.

But sometimes I meet a person with no interest in music…but they don’t tend to become my friend…not a deep friend, at least.

They aren’t sympatico. They don’t go to my “church”.

It is hard to understand how someone wouldn’t be moved by music.

Here’s a complete genre of music that makes me happy no matter the weather or the situation.

It sets the tone…it makes the mood better no matter what I’m doing.

“Trench Town Rock” Bob Marley

Reggae…that’s an easy choice. It’s sunny island music…it’s a mood generator supreme…good times.

It’s a no brainer to say that reggae music makes me happy and mellow.

Now, some people are going to say that they hate reggae music…that they don’t like white boys with dreadlocks… that they don’t like any easy skankin’ (what is “easy skankin’ ” anyway?)…some people just don’t like easy skankin’.

I say…”to each his own”.

That freaking rooster is crowing to beat the band outside my closed window…he’s going to wake everybody up.

Dang.

I need to crank up these headphone jams while I still can do it…before the patter of little feet starts up and it’s time to get a cup of juice and some breakfast together for Nate before the ride to my work and his preschool.

I do loves me some music…could you tell?