Imagine This Scenario
You can’t speak intelligently, you have no memory of what happened in most of your life so far, you no longer recognize people around you, and yet your relationships are healthy and fulfilling, you are healthy and emotionally satisfied, physically fit, and living fully in the moment.
Possible?
For many people in memory care, the first half of that paragraph is their only reality. Statistically, many of us may already or will be caregivers for those with memory issues, or may face memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease in our own futures. As we transition towards the mindset of our second half of life, how can we avoid the tragedy and insure the goodness in that imaginative scenario?
The good news, however, is that memory loss doesn’t lose the music we love. So, if we tap into that music cognitively and right now, build a life playlist and share it with those around us, we have offered everyone we care for many ways to stay fundamentally connected to and engaged with us…whether or not we ever experience memory issues.
The Living Music Will
A Living Music Will is one way this works. It’s a playlist of our most meaningful music – 
music that is fundamental to who we have been in our lives so far.
Back in the day, when music was more difficult to use, many people had intimate working knowledge of their family’s and friends’ music. Now, the explosion of access to music means that new and powerful songs are emerging all the time – even well into our lives – and it’s not just the music of our adolescence that’s most meaningful. So let’s get ready.
What does all this mean to us?
Here’s the Call to Action: make a life playlist. Start now. Update it when you need to. Share it with those you love. Encourage those around you to do the same. If you’re ever in memory care, we will know how to reach you, engage with you, share your life with you in one of the most beautiful ways human being can share life together: with the music you love.
And think of this: songs mean things. In addition to songs for happy, sad, scared, and angry, one could have a song for “hungry,” songs for “go to sleep” and “wake up,” songs for bathing or showering, toileting, getting dressed, going out – if music is the universal language, why not use it that way?
If you haven’t watched the documentary, Alive Inside, it’s full of evidence that supports this call to action:
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Over the course of more than 40 years of paying attention to how music works on us, Bill Protzmann has rediscovered the fundamental nature and purpose of music and accumulated a vast awareness of anthropology and sociology, as well as the effects of music, the arts, and information technology on human beings. Bill has experimented with what he has learned through performing concerts, giving lectures, facilitating workshops, and teaching classes. He first published on the powerful extensibility of music into the business realm in 2006 (here and abstract here). Ten years later, in 2016, he consolidated his work into the Musimorphic Quest. In this guided, gamified, experiential environment, participants discover and remember their innate connection to this ancient transformative technology. Also, The National Council for Behavioral Healthcare recognized Bill in 2014 with an Inspiring Hope award for Artistic Expression, the industry equivalent of winning an Oscar.
Musimorphic programs support wellness for businesses, NPOs and at-risk populations, and individuals.
