The Little Things: Music

Music is such an important part of what makes us human. I vividly remember the in utero response of my first child to Eskimo Joe. Watching with a mix of wonder, laughter, and love as my wife's heavily pregnant belly bopped away in time, I began to appreciate just how primevally we experience music. I have never lost that sense of wonder, laughter, and love as I watch my children grow into tiny little people with an innate and entirely unselfconscious joy of dancing and singing - even before they can walk or talk.

Music that we like makes us feel good and helps to bind us together as a cultural group. Just what music we like is highly subjective of course, but thankfully it is beyond my ambition to explore that subjectivity today - The mental thread that brought me here is far lighter - I just want to share some cool music...

I recently discovered the brilliant song and video Eyes Wide Open by Gotye (thanks Simon) - Even if the Belgian-Australian connection hadn't got me, his cleverly-penned cautionary message about environmental destruction was sure to suck me in - Check out some of his other stuff while you're there - This guy is entirely independent and is receiving justifiable accolades in Aus and Belgium.

These themes of independence and approval are surely important to human flourishing, so you can expect them to be explored more deeply in later posts. I promised that you would be spared deep philosophical ponderings today though - this blog is simply my attempt to non-surgically extract the Gotye earworm that has infected me for the last few days.

The other reason for the post was to try solicit some feedback about about other cool new songs with a green theme?

Note: I'm not suggesting that the green movement needs another folk singer, and I was entirely unsurprised that poor Paradise Oskar's cute, but schmaltzy green cheese ended up 21st out of 25 in this year's Eurovision. To me though, there seems little doubt that music has profound ties to our humanity, and so has an important role to play as we regain that humanity and work together to change the world.

So, please share your ideas about current songs, artists, or other musically inspired initiatives that you think might just help bring about the changes in hearts and minds that we need to promote Sustainable Human Flourishing.

Who do you think will write the theme song to the revolution that will change the world?