I grew up regularly going to The Kennedy Center for Saturday evening symphonies with the fam. It was a big to do … getting dressed up, going out for a nice dinner … you get the idea.

I gotta tell you … I wasn’t all that thrilled about it either. I don’t know many kids who are. I found it stuffy and boring.

The most exciting part was intermission when I’m sure TC and Maman bribed me with candy and Cokes. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it makes sense that it was probably to keep me appeased.

Totally worked.

TC has always been into classical music … big time. I can’t ever not remember a time when NPR wasn’t on the radio. Including in the house — always on. Always blaring. So I’d go and blare some Jay-Z in my room to try to cancel it out.

Totally did not work.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come around on the classical scene and have a true appreciation and fondness for hearing it performed live. That’s one of the great things being in Cincinnati — the arts scene.

Tonight, TC, Brother and I hit up Music Hall for … well, it was Brahms the second half and I can’t remember what the first part was. Some violin/cello solo.

See. I have one slight prob when it comes to anything symphonic … it all sounds the same to me. I can’t tell any of it apart to save my life.

I’m utterly and completely amazed when TC hears five seconds of a movement and can identify it as “Mozart’s fifth concerto” {if Mozart even has a fifth concerto?} or “Schubert’s Symphony No 8”.

It all blends into one in my mind.

Now. Give me Beyonce and Rihanna and I can tell the difference. But to me, the classicals are all so … so … similar.

I’m sure for a lot of people the reverse is true … Beyonce and RiRi sound exactly alike. Of course I don’t get how that could be … but, hey, to each their own.

The important thing is: I do enjoy the whole symphony experience. It’s very cultural {love me some culture}, relaxing and meditative. Yeah. I pretty much fall asleep every time I’m at Music Hall.

I always have the head bob going. So when my chin slams into my chest, I try to bring my head as straight as normally possible and act as wide awake as possible, like it’s something I do all the time.

This falling asleep is nothing against the place — if anything, it should show just how great it is … I mean, it’s not just anywhere I can fall asleep so comfortably.

Tonight, I found myself  immersed in the sounds of all those piercing instruments coming together as one, as though they became their own words and story … the frenzied power of certainty and uncertainty mixed with a slow and questioning melancholy.

I tried to imagine Brahms. This proved difficult, as I had no reference to go on, except a weird picture of Beethoven that kept mentally popping up. So that’s not saying much.

I decided to forgo trying to “picture” him and whether or not he was a super stud in his days {I like to make sure I’m thinking of the important, deep questions} and instead went with what he was trying to capture.

And to that I decided a simple answer: life.

The back and forth. The traumas and dramas. The loves and losses. Making peace with that.

Really, this is all any song of any genre is, right?

Triumphs and sorrows of everyday. Love and heartbreak. And then either saying: F off, I’m so much better without you. Or: please come back.

I need to tell TC that when it comes down to it, there isn’t all that much different from Jay-Z and Mr. Brahms.

In fact, I bet they would have rocked it out together back in the day.