This morning some of my closest friends and I found ourselves listening to the same radio station. We're women of a certain vintage (born in the 70s) with a love of dance music, and as each new song played the WhatsApp group would 'ping' with declarations of "TUUUUUNNNEEE" or "OMG remember when this played when we were at....." and as I laughed at the memories and watched the videos of them dancing in their kitchens, I noticed a lightness in me that hadn't been there for a while. I felt connected to my sanity sisters in a way that I haven't for many months, and it has caused me to reflect throughout the day about what the magic ingredient was, and I think it was the medium of radio. Of course the music was a massive part of it, we all know how evocative songs are, and how they can affect our mood, but I don't think it would have been the same if one of us had been playing a playlist. I suspect that it had something to do with the joint experiencing? or the excitement of anticipating what's coming next? Or maybe the fact that we were in some way being affected by the wider world after lots of Zoom and WhatsApp communications that were very inward focusing, suddenly we turned our attention to the outside world and it provided us with a joyful collective experience, and very welcome new memories.
Maybe I should stop thinking so much and just enjoy the music, but I suspect that the radio will have a larger part of me staying socially connected from here on in.
Hey Mr DJ, put a record on...…
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