“Communion”

“At that time, in the early seventies, young people selected the music appropriate for an occasion carefully, for the music both symbolized their feelings at that moment and helped to deepen and expand them. Not merely background or atmosphere or something to be sporadically sung along with or swayed to, music functioned magically: creating entirely new surroundings, time periods, companions, dreams, and longings into which the listener moved as if stepping out of a time machine or rematerializing after teleportation. Music served as the focus for Skylar’s intimate gatherings. Agreement among those in the room to play a certain record indicated their willingness to enter into the soul-space of that music. No one interrupted cherished songs. People talked during the less-powerful tracks. However, a good deal of unspoken communication took place. During especially moving sections of songs, people’s eyes met in shared understanding and sometimes a hand reached out to lovingly pat a friend’s knee. They had begun to understand what few in the too-verbal Princeton environment did: that words got in the way of the deeper and more sublime feelings found in silence.”