A Word from Dean: The Gift of Relaxation
The New York Times ran a fun story this week: “The Jazzy Tune You Heard on Hold? This Part-Time Musician Made It.”
It tells of:
“Harriet Goldberg, a late bloomer who went from acareer in social work to the queen of hold music with her 2011 song ‘My Time to Fly.’ Harriet Goldberg is the composer of what may be one of the most heard songs in the world today.
This 74-year-old New Jersey native is, in her own words, a ‘late blooming, part-time musician,’ who has never played a live gig and is unknown to the music industry at large.
But every day since 2017, Goldberg’s jazzy instrumental, ‘My Time to Fly,’ has been served up to countless callers who are put on hold by the customer service lines of businesses large and small. These include Capital One, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Costco, Nasdaq, the Kansas Unemployment Office, Sagami Railway in Japan, Dartmoor Prison in England, scores of hotels and restaurants and, yes, The New York Times.”
If you listen to the link, I hope you’ll find that it is not irritating like so many other pieces we are forced to listen while on hold. There are several things I find delightful about Harriet’s story:
- She is a late-bloomer who came to success by studying and doing what she loves
- She persevered in her avocation
- She brings pleasure to a good percentage of the people who have to listen to her tune
- She had mentors and friends who supported her experimental composing
- And, as a music executive noted, “it sets a relaxed mood for what can be one of life’s more trying situations.”
In a city and age of high-anxiety, we are truly gifted whenever we’re given a time to relax, if even for a few minutes. It’s a gift we can give, too; by sharing a calming word, by smiling at someone, by asking “what can I do to help?”, by letting a driver merge into traffic ahead of us, by lowering the volume on the TV or radio, etc.
Today we had to have a new garbage disposal installed. The plumber told us that the InSinkErator Company did consumer research and learned that the No. 1 thing people want in a disposal is to be able to talk on the phone while the garbage is being ground up and whisked away. So I suppose our more quiet appliance is a gift of relaxation, too. I’m certainlymore relaxed now knowing that the sink won’t clog.
A spiritual exercise for us might be to take deep breaths when we feel anxious, asking the Holy Spirit to bring us some peace and perspective. Then to spread our gift of calm with others.
Dean