Music that hurts too much

After addressing movies, Peacebang is now tackling music ... specifically, music that renders you wet and soggy, unable to hold the tears back.

Mine are -- mostly -- situation based. But man, they kill me. I can't hear them without tearing up.

Bridge Over Troubled Water. The Sunday after the levees broke in New Orleans, I was scheduled to preach at a church in another town. A town that was taking in Rita-evacuees. A couple of months before that, I had requested that the very talented musicians sing this song.

Oh, Lordy. It was too perfect, too raw, too right. I was completely a mess. Everyone else was, too, though. And a little old lady handed me a wad of toilet paper and whispered that my bra strap was showing. I will always love her.

Sunrise, Sunset. I remember when I was a teen, my mother coming home from a wedding and angrily complaining that it should be against the law for anyone to have that song in a wedding, because it makes all the parents cry. I'm a parent now, and I'm all for that law.

My Beloved Wife, by Natalie Merchant. I can't even read the lyrics without tearing up. My parents have been married 56 years. 'Nuff said.

I'm sorry, why I am thinking about songs that make me cry???

Okay, well, before I stop this insanity, I have to add one last song. The song that instantly was in my head when I read PB's challenge.

Canon, Pachebel. We had a 40 minute CD of Canon, one that I had used when I was pregnant with my first, practicing all those breathing exercises. I copied it to my iPod before Little Warrior's surgery when she was 9 months old ... the surgery that would remove a grapefruit-sized tumor from her right kidney and an orange-sized tumor from her left kidney.

She was in ICU for what felt like a million days, but as I recall, was about 3 or 4. It was so loud and busy in there. Not restful. She looked so pitiful, with about a thousand tubes coming out of her. I had some little speakers that I plugged my iPod into, and we put Canon on a continuous loop. 24 hours a day, for however many days we were there. Mmm ... mmm, mmm, mmmmmm .... Pachebel's Canon. Over and over. She seemed to sleep better.

It's a beautiful piece of music. But two notes in, and I cry. PPTSD. Pachebel's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.