Schopenhauer - Andrew Bird, Danse Caribe

"He therefore draws nature into himself, so that he feels it to be only an accident of his own being. In this sense Byron says: Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part / Of me and my soul, as I of them?" (83)

What draws me to Andrew Bird is a very particular combination, namely, the complexity of the music and the simplicity of my reaction. Listening to his work, especially this song, involves a type of suspension that I suspect is similar to the contemplation that Schopenhauer speaks of. I chose the passage above because of how well it captures how I feel when I listen to this song. I find that I often drop whatever it is I am doing, when this song begins to play. In Schopenhauer's terms, human will and desire both cease, leaving a kind of universality and oneness.