Devotion is also a mood
Did you know that Thomas Edison was the original mood playlister?
In 1921, Edison took a detour into pseudo-psychology in order to market Diamond Discs, a proprietary type of record manufactured by Edison Records. He published a booklet entitled "Mood Music" that guided consumers on various selections of music that were curated to have a certain effect on the mood, citing studies by Dr. W.V. Bingham of the Department of Applied Psychology at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
I read about this in Liz Pelly's book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist yesterday, while I was in a plane heading from Halifax to Calgary. I just started the book; it's on loan from Kyle and I'm loving it so far. Sobering? Yes. Vindicating? Absolutely.
"Next to religion, [music] is man’s greatest solace, and is also his greatest inspiration." - Thomas A. Edison
I was quite delighted by the 12 categories of mood "playlists" that Dr. Bingham's team came up with:
To Stimulate and Enrich Your Imagination
To Bring You Peace of Mind
To Make You Joyous
In Moods of Wistfulness
Jolly Moods and Good Fellowship
For More Energy!
Love – and Its Mood
Moods of Dignity and Grandeur
The Mood for Tender Memory
Devotion Is Also a Mood
Stirring
For the Children
My favourite— although it's close, there are quite a few stand-outs— is "Devotion is Also a Mood".
In a Devotional Mood
I’ve written here before about art as service, and the idea of devotion moves through my mind in a similar way. The other day, I came across a quote (can’t remember where, now, of course) attributed to an investor named Rick Buhrman. He was explaining the difficult circumstances of his son Theo’s birth, and how numerous physicians and surgeons—each devoted to mastering their respective crafts—played a role in saving his son’s life.
“I know that in the moment, it wasn’t necessarily viewed as kindness,” Buhrman says, “But maybe in some sense, the kindest thing that all of us can do is to pursue something radically that in some way is in service to others.”
I think what he means by "pursuing something radically" is to devote oneself absolutely to it. To spend a ridiculous chunk of one's finite life learning and practicing as if lives depend on it. Surgeons may not think of themselves as radical or kind for their line of work, but I think the principle applies to everything. Mastery of a craft is a gift you can give to other people.
