The Word Music and its Connection to a Shuffle Practice
As well as the words Muse, Musings, and Museum + Scrantonicity & The Office Haggadah
1. The Origins of the Word Music
The word Music comes from the Greek word for Muse.
The Muses were the goddesses of the arts.
Music was considered the first and purest form.
According to Pausanias, there were originally three Muses:
Aoide (song)
Melete (practice)
Mneme (memory).
A Shuffle practice mirrors this ancient trinity:
The spirit brings us an Aoide (song)
During our Melete (practice)
Which we explore and record in our Mneme (memory).
2. The Muses and Divine Inspiration
The Muses didn’t just represent specific art forms like epic poetry (Calliope) or comedy (Thalia).
They’re also responsible for the divine inspiration of the content of the arts.
They were believed to transmit messages through us via our receptivity, which we then manifest in our art.
However art doesn’t have to be singing a song, composing a poem, or writing a comedy for others.
While art can depict a universal experience for others, art can also help us understand the personal meanings happening in our lives.
A Shuffle practice is one of the ways the Muses constantly transmit meaningful messages to our receptive selves, even us who may not consider ourselves artists.
The essential part is making time for our Musings…
3. The Art of Musing
The word Musing also comes from the root word Muse.
It means a period of deep reflection or thought.
Such a practice can be part of an art form.
There’s often musing involved in writing a comedy for instance.
But it can also be an art form itself and it’s part of a Shuffle practice.
Reflecting on a Shuffled song, we connect with the divine inspiration of the Muses.
Who transmit messages via the song and our musings about it.
Which we record in our journal that is a collection of personal meaning for our lives.
Otherwise known as a Museum…
4. The Museum as Personal History
Historically, a Museum was a shrine to the Muses.
A place where people sought divine inspiration for their art and to pay respects to a collection of the relics of the inspiration from that Muse.
Our modern meaning of Museum is similar in that it’s often a place to see what we found or continue to find to be the most universally meaningful of a contribution to the arts.
Our Shuffle Journals can similarly be thought of as a personal Museum.
We record the memories of our musings—moments when the Muses transmitted personal meaning via the art of music.
These journals become collections we can revisit when seeking guidance, just as we might visit a museum to understand the past in the context of the present or future.
5. Examples From My Shuffle Journal
As usual, I’ll share entries from My Shuffle Journal.
This time they are not about professional or romantic guidance.
Wednesday, September 25th, 2024 (40)
Q: Should I have a health thing checked out?
Medium Affectivity/Belief
🔀✨
“Alfred Lord Tennyson - The Charge of The Light Brigade” | Ghizela Rowe | The Abbey Poets
Lyrics Analysis
I
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
II
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
III
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
IV
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
V
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
VI
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Music Analysis
Poem, read aloud, war and death, courage, strength, in the face of danger and uncertainty, stand up to a potential reality or challenge
Strong Accuracy
Co-Curation
This gave me a nudge to schedule an appointment with primary care doctor
Thursday, September 26th, 2024 (41)
Q: After an issue with someone, should I vent by posting something on Instagram about the Israeli-Palestine conflict?
Strong Belief/Affectivity
🔀✨
“The Times They Are-A-Changin’ - Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY - October 1963” - Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan Live At Carnegie Hall 1963
Lyrics Analysis
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Music Analysis
Literary, acoustic guitar, live performance, concert, show, harmonica, nasal, folk, protest song in support of youth against old guard, but the song, esp last stanza, also speaks to the inevitability of change and warns of the dangers of being too confident in self-righteousness.
Other Notes
October 1963
Extreme Accuracy
Co-Curation
I decided not to vent post.
6. Scrantonicity and The Office Haggadah
As you probably know, synchronicities extend well beyond music.
Yesterday I was watching The Office to prepare for my 7th parody Haggadah for the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Which I’m happy to announce I’m co-writing this time with a friend, Dan Lerman, who hosted two Seder party readings of my Seinfeld parody.
Here he is on Saturday giving Jason Alexander a copy of that The Yada Yada Haggadah.
As I was watching The Office Season 2 Episode 22, and started to feel like, Gosh, shouldn’t I be using my time/energy to write a TV show like The Office, instead of parodying it for Jewish learning, or do another post of my Shuffle Synchronicities…
Literally just then…
Jim and Pam, while looking for bands for her wedding, stumble across Kevin’s Police cover band “Scrantonicity.”
Which if you get the pun is based on the band The Police’s album Synchronicity and song(s) Synchronicity I and II.
And was something I wrote about in Volume 1 here and here.
What this reaffirmed for me is that the Muses are always communicating with us.
This time it was good old Thalia ;0
I’m on my path doing The Office Haggadah (and with Dan).
And I’m on my path by doing the Shuffle Synchroncities project.
What about you???