Listen to This Song! It might inspire something irrational within you...

I had a thought running through my mind as I read through the Encomium; what Gorgias says in his essay often passes through my own head. When I make mistakes, the first thoughts that run through my mind are what influences that I may perceive at the moment did to make me do something, like Satan, for example, I often think, "Man, I really don't appreciate that temptation!" We, as humans are so prone to blame others. After a few minutes of thinking about a mistake I may have made I get over the frustration and realize the truth, no matter what those outside of me try to get me to do, I ultimately decide what I do. Gorgias sounds almost childish, kind of like we do when we point our fingers, as he defends Helen. His essay seems to me to drip with pathos as he produces images in our minds of art, moving speech, and war. His whole argument seems to be based on pathos, whether it was the emotions of Helen or the emotions of her captors it was emotion that controlled them according to Gorgias, thus it wasn't their fault.

Music moves me. I have played the cello for many years, I don't know why I've stuck with it, really it isn't rational. I won't ever be able to provide for my family since I'm not choosing to be a music major, it just takes up time to practice and play in the symphony orchestra here. Time is precious, I need it to study and work, why would I use some of it to sit down and play music when I won't be pursuing it professionally? Because it feels good. When I was 15 I played in the Utah Youth Symphony and we performed a song called "Danzon no. 2" by --. In the last 1/4 of the song there is a crescendo in the piece where everyone in the symphony is playing as loud as they can with all of the emotion they can muster. The moment we arrived at that part in the piece I felt the most incredible sensation; I felt as if I was lifted up, I felt a weightlessness that made me feel like I and the rest of the group was floating in the air. It was almost spiritual, there I was with a group of people working together to create something beautiful, useless, really, but beautiful. The only moments that have produced feelings that equaled that moment have been deeply personal and spiritual. It is for that reason that I continue with my irrational decision to play the cello today, even though I have no time, and it will take me nowhere. We all do irrational things because of our emotions, but that doesn't make them excusable if they're bad as Gorgias proposes, but I like to think that not all irrational decisions are bad decisions. If you have a few minutes, go ahead and listen!

In case you are interested, the part where I felt like I was 

floating starts at about 7:45 until the end. (Notice how much the musicians are moving.)

Music to Fill the Moments

Music has always had a dominant presence in my life. My childhood memories consist of being in orchestra classes, performing, traveling to fancy concert halls, and competing for awards. Nowadays, the ear buds are always in and I organize the perfect soundtrack for my life. As it turns out, this lifestyle could just be the Greek in me. 

In my research, I found that though Greek pieces are still being recovered, we know through archaeological finds that live musical performances were included in everyday activities (including herding and rowing) in addition to special occasions. 

sources: http://www.lyravlos.gr/ancient-greek-music-en.asp
              http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm