Is it possible that music can do anything to comfort someone during a flood? This week has seen one of the most devastating floods since Noah!! It was all a result of Hurricane Harvey that ripped through Houston, stalled out there for the next five days, and then drifted out to sea, gained strength and came back again today! They already have over 50 inches which is the worst flood in American history! And now they may get another 10-15.
People around the country stare at their TV’s in absolute disbelief that this is happening, although the weather forecasters did predict that it could be almost this bad, but no one knew that Houston would get more than 50 inches! Can music possibly help with this? There are many music therapists that go to the site of all kinds of disasters and work with people to calm them, give them hope and bond them together with familiar songs.
I don’t actually know if any music therapists are working in Texas and Louisiana, but music can help people who are in crisis. The song that I think is a great one is below. It’s written by the great Randy Newman, who grew up in the Louisiana area and lived through many floods. This song captures the tragedy of a flood and helps me to feel the pain that all of these people felt in the Louisiana flood of 1927 and are feeling now with the devastating floods that Hurricane Harvey has caused.
In a very cursory search for “songs about floods” on YouTube I found dozens of songs about floods. Music paints the pictures of our lives whether precious memories like births and weddings, or sad events like death and natural disasters, break-up songs, and losses of all kinds. What would we do without music and songs that help us express what words alone can’t touch?
I hope you will listen to this song, and really hear all the emotion that Randy Newman has put into it!!
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