Driving home last night, I heard on the radio a virtuoso performance of the classic piano solo, Rage Over the Lost Penny (Rondo Capriccio by Beethoven).  Having recently had not a penny, but my entire 12-ounce set of keys (1 car, 1 house, and 2 offices) disappear into thin air, I immediately identified with the emotional tornado conveyed by this brilliant piece and laughed out loud.  (Listen, and you’ll laugh, too.

Every so often (at first it was every time I opened a cabinet, the freezer or the sugar canister), I threaten to get caught up in that emotional swirl again – because I know that those keys, including my car remote, are at my house!

Here’s the point.  Music provides a powerful reflection of emotions – and, in this case – an instructive tool.  Because the music swirls and seethes, subsides, and then swirls and seethes again, I had multiple chances to view my own fury from afar, with a combination of chuckles and chagrin, and could vow not to go there again.

The lesson holds for kids, too.  Music and stories take kids a step away from their own direct experience, and allow them to understand and master their feelings from a safe distance. When it’s still too painful to talk about their own traumas and disappointments, it’s safer, and comforting, to read about the trials of a favorite heroine, or listen to a melancholy melody.  Even though they’re not ready to put them all into words yet, they’re able to begin to come to terms with overwhelming feelings this way.

As was I.

Of course, it only goes so far, and you can rest assured that while I’m going to refrain from asking my son-in-law to turn the recliner upside down and shake it, I’m still looking for those keys.