The Soundtrack of your Life

by Julia Buckley

The next two days will provide my last moments with a very fun and talented creative writing class (who will be replaced by another creative writing class).  While we were pondering all that they've written in our eight weeks together, I noted some of the prompts that we found, in books and online, that were fun.

One of my favorites was this: If a movie were being made about your life, what music would provide the soundtrack?

This is a fun question for a lot of reasons. First, it tends to focus a person on her favorite music, but it also begs the question of WHY this is the preferred music. Second, it lets one hone in on her all-time favorite artists.  So I envision one movie of me having an all-Gordon Lightfoot soundtrack, but another having all Abba, or all Beatles, or all Linda Rondstadt.

Or, if I had more time, I suppose I would choose favorite individual songs by all of my favorite artists and make a true movie soundtrack.  There would have to be music from other cultures to represent scenes with my parents or grandparents--a German carol, perhaps, or a Hungarian violin solo.  At certain points it would be apropos to play James Taylor's You've Got a Friend (or maybe Carol King's original version). And at times, especially when I escape to the woods, I think only a John Denver tune could capture the right tone.

My husband always connected me with the song Brown-Eyed Girl by Van Morrison because (you guessed it) I have brown eyes.

The more you think about the question, the more complicated it can become, which is why it's a terrific prompt.

And, depending on the day that you answer it, the answer might always be different.  If you asked me today, the song playing under the opening credits of the story of my life would probably be this one:





 What would be the music for the soundtrack of your life?