The Inside of a Music Box

I'm coming to realize more and more that almost everything I hear, with music-box sounds I like. I'm not sure why. I think it's because the way it sounds is so incredibly evocative of memory for me. Not necessarily a memory that I have..but evocative of the idea of memory.

But if it's not really evoking a memory that I have, then why does it matter? Why does it promote such a visceral feeling of longing or memory for me?

I think it's because it goes back and touches the idea of memory itself. For someone like me, who can't help but to romanticize his past, simply because he can't remember, a music box is like the key to the chest of all the memories I don't have, the ones that have been lost, or forgotten.

Regardless of whether they're happy or sad memories, the fact that they're locked up in a memory box always means that it's worth remembering, even if it hurts. Maybe that's why. It's an acute consciousness of the past that exists in the present, a remembering that's so vivid it displaces the current moment with one that had already been irrevocably set in stone.

I often want what I can't have, and in this case, it's the memories that I've lost. Music Boxes make me feel as though I'm opening up a memory that I had lost, and that...takes me back and makes me feel a little happy, a little sad, but a little content at the same time. I'm glad to have my memories, even if they hurt.