“The Balm of Music”

“As a very young child he had experienced monotony, travail, lonely isolation, and intense yearning in Bolero, the wonders of discovery and majestic natural beauty in the Grand Canyon Suite, and the mystery of falling in love in South Pacific. In his adolescent years, he soothed the tribulations of imprisoning loneliness, dangerous self-hatred, forlorn infatuation, and paralyzing doubt by listening to the songs of The Association, The Young Rascals, and The Turtles. Even in these dark periods of near madness, when Skylar felt as though he were lost in a dense jungle, lacking not just a map but a destination, music had guided him. Music gathered up his suffering and transformed it: not always into something beautiful or admirable but at least into something higher, purer, and more comprehensible. If he suffered the torments of unrequited love, it calmed him to hear a song about someone else undergoing similar pain. His loneliness found company in others who shared their isolation through their tunes. And the vision of “A Beautiful Morning” opened a field of hope that the future might bring sunny days with children and flowers and chirping birds.”