I got out of bed this morning with a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) tune in my head; not surprising, since that is one of our Pandora stations. I hummed and sang the lyrics intermittently as I got Cindy up and to the bathroom. Once we were in the shower Cindy started humming the song, somewhat to my surprise.
The surprise was not due to Cindy humming. She likes music; she just has trouble carrying a tune. Carole King and Christmas carols were the only songs she could sing with someone recognizing what she actually was singing. The standard ribbing in our family was the kids certainly did not get their artistic talents from me, nor their musical talents from their Mom.
The surprise in the shower came from Cindy humming a CSNY song somewhat in tune! I’m not taking this as a sign that Cindy is getting better; I’ve accepted reality in regards to that. I wonder instead about the research demonstrating the resiliency of the parts of the brain responding to music. While other brain tissue decays, our “music center” apparently keeps right on ticking.
Given our inherent human nature to desire learning, I wonder then if our resilient “music center” synapses become the beneficiary of what the mind with Alzheimer’s desperately wants to do but cannot in most areas of the brain. Admittedly, Cindy hit a few wrong notes humming “Find the Cost of Freedom” in the shower, but the fact I could recognize her humming something besides Carole King struck me.
While I’m making circumstantial observations, allow me one more in this matter. Pop was musical, Mom was not. She was, in fact, more tone deaf than Cindy. My oldest brother, the only one out of the five of us with Alzheimer’s to date, is the least musical. I don’t intend to make too much out of that, besides what research already has established. I’ll just take it as a hopeful sign for me.
I think I shall try a small experiment. Each morning I will get up singing a different song, not ostensibly or showy, but in a subliminal, intermittent fashion. I will then see if Cindy hums the song, when and where she might hum and if she is somewhat in tune. Maybe nothing interesting will come from this little experiment, but at least some small amount of enjoyment for us will.
