Why can’t life be more like the music?

Music soothes the savage beast. Who said that?

So, "Why can't life be more like the music?"

Is it because people don't listen to music anymore? Is it because there is no real music to hear?

How many of us have gotten put on hold on the telephone waiting for some disinterested customer "service" representative? While waiting, how many of us are subjected, repeatedly, to the refrains of alleged "music" that makes you want to put its singer out of his or her misery?

How many of us have been put on hold waiting for some disinterested customer "service" representative and, while waiting, have been subjected to a damaged musical recording with the result being something akin to listening to a "broken record"?

How many of us are there left who remember what a broken record is?

How many of us remember what it sounds like when the "needle is stuck"?

In cases like those described above, music does not sooth the savage beast; rather, it brings the beast out in us. By the time the alleged customer service representative arrives on the line, we have either (a) gotten so angry that we go after the representative verbally tooth and claw, or (b) forgotten what problem we were attempting to solve in the first place.

Music does soothe the savage beast. However, people who hire answering services with "music" in the background must first be required to listen to it for about an hour, with an hour off, then for another hour, for about seven hours.

Then we could possibly find background music on answering services that is actual music. Perhaps the victims of such services may then find some surcease.

And, by the way, thanks for a great column.