8.20.2013

Gold-Plated Phonographs

My favorite email to read each morning is from The Writer's Almanac, a transcript of what is read on NPR every day.  I loved this morning's description of a historic message from earth:

"It was on this day in 1977 that Voyager 2 was launched by NASA to explore the planets of our solar system and to take the first up-close photographs of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.  Just before the Voyagers took off, a committee of scientists, led by Carl Sagan, decided to put on board each Voyager a message from Earth in case extraterrestrials ever found them....The Voyagers were each equipped with a gold-plated phonograph containing a variety of earthly sounds, including a heartbeat, a mother's kiss, wind, rain, surf, a chimpanzee, footsteps, laughter, the music of Bach and Mozart, and the Chuck Berry song "Johnny Be Good." Carl Sagan said, "The launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

I started thinking about what I might put on a gold-plated phonograph to capture the soundtrack of my life and here is a partial list:


          Etta James singing "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve," our song from our 
          courthouse wedding

          My husband whispering "I miss you already"

          Xavier's giggle, his sing-songy coos, and him saying "uh-oh"

          My dad reading Good Night Moon to his grandson

          My mom's laugh

          A summer breeze rustling leaves on a willow tree

          A raucous gentoo penguin colony

          A humpback whale singing and exhaling on the surface

          Elgar's Cello Concerto

          Frank O'Hara reciting a poem


          Chet Baker on the trumpet

          "Lütfen" and "Teşekkürler" - Please and Thank you in Turkish 

          The pop of a champagne bottle opening


What sounds make up your life soundtrack?  What would you put on a gold-plated phonograph?

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