Making Connections

Yesterday, I was playing some music for all the household to hear, and a Billie Holiday song came on.  My son looked up from his toy trucks and said: “Oh, this song is like Annie,” which was his way of saying the music he was hearing was of a similar style to much of the music in that favorite motion picture.  Later, the song “Star Trek Rhapsody”, which is a parody based on “Bohemian Rhapsody,” came on.  My son said, “This sounds like WALL-E”.  Again, he was right: the sound effects in that song are very reminiscent of the sound effects in his favorite film.

I think it’s great that someone so young is already able to spot similarities in unrelated bits of daily life.  Maybe it means he’s smart, or maybe it just means he’ll be a comedian one day.  Either way, I think such pattern recognition should be encouraged.

His nonchalant comments reminded me of one day, about 25 years ago, when I was in second grade.  My elementary school used to have these things called “Picture Day”.  I don’t mean the day when all the kids try to look their best and pose for a lousy keepsake photo.  No, I mean the day that volunteers actually came into our class with a painting.  The paintings were on loan from the library, and the volunteers were usually librarians (though, for some reason, I have this hazy feeling that some of the volunteers were mothers’ of the children).

I liked Picture Day.  The whole class would sit on the floor in a semi-circle and the volunteer would pull out a large reproduction of a famous painting and tell us the story of how this painting came to be and why it’s important.  I learned a lot about art and history thanks to Picture Day; one time a volunteer brought in Christina’s World.  Another time, a volunteer came in with a painting of Dan Patch (of significance because my elementary school was named after Marion Savage).

One day, a woman brought in two paintings.  When she pulled out the first painting, it was totally covered with tagboard.  She then opened up a flap that revealed a small portion of the painting.  In the flap, we could only darkness and some stars.  She asked if we had any guesses as to what time of day the painting was depicting.  Of course, we all shouted out “night time”.  Then she opened another flap, revealing what looked like a bright sun.  So then we were all confused.  Then she removed the whole piece of tagboard.  It was then that we saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  I was immediately drawn to the picture; it was undoubtedly my favorite painting that anyone had ever brought in for picture day.  

As she spoke to us about the painting, however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had heard the words “starry night” somewhere before.  After much thinking, it finally occurred to me and, so, when she asked if we had any questions, my hand shot up into the air.  “Does this painting have anything to do with that song that goes ‘starry, starry night’?” I asked.  I was referring to the Don MacLean song, “Starry Starry Night”, of which my father owned the single.  She scrunched up her face and, looking really put out at the question, said: “Well, yes, but let’s focus on the painting, here.”

After fielding a few more questions from the class, she pulled out her next picture: a painting depicting a scene from the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek.  I had never heard of Little Bighorn, or of George Custer, but, again, by sheer coincidence, as she told the story of the battle and the painting, I recalled another song my Dad owned.  So, at question time, I again raised my hand, and asked if this painting bore any connection to the funny song “Mr. Custer”.  This time, my teacher shot me a cold glance, as if I was acting out of line, and the volunteer, who assumed I was just trying to be funny, said, “Well, we’re not gonna talk about that song, it’s very disrespectful to Custer”.

Here’s what I learned later in life: Custer was a supreme asshole who deserves no respect.  And even if he did, guess what?  I wasn’t talking about the actual historical event.  I was inquiring about the painting.  Maybe Larry Verne’s parody song was just a stupid parody song, but the painting was, well, just a painting.  And while I’m fully on board with the notion that Van Gogh’s contributions to the arts far exceeeds Don MacLean’s, guess what?  It’s still just a painting.  

Another thing I learned is that making connections like that helps the brain grow and stay alert.  Despite what I learned in school.