like a dagger, and in a flood of swift recollection I thought of all the joys the house had known: the children who had rushed through the rooms, the festivals, the love and work.” Music is therapy. Listening to music speeds cognitive recovery after a stroke, several studies have found. Patients in minimally conscious, or even vegetative states, showed healthier brain activity when listening to a favorite song. I recognize the benefits of music intellectually, but can’t seem to make the leap to a more intimate knowledge. I suffer from a kind of musical apathy. As a teenager, I never collected
...more
