I do enjoy striking up conversations with strangers in public. On busses or just out on the sidewalk, I like when people are willing to meet my eye or occasionally connect. It feels more human this way.

But sometimes, I only want to listen to my music on my headphones.

The right music at the right moment can take you to a new world. You can create a personal and private music video.

Sometimes I look for songs to go with the world I’m already in. Other times, I want to go somewhere else entirely.

A song like Get Down On It by Kool and the Gang can turn a sidewalk into a moving disco.

An album like Feel Good Lost by Broken Social Scene turns a subway ride into a cosmically significant encounter between all sides of society. “There’s so many ways to look and be in the world,” I marvel.

Time by Pachanga Boys makes me want to be on a mountain at 2am with a couple of good friends looking off at the lights of civilization in the distance.

I could go on. The music, my mood and imagination can create all sorts of wonderful worlds.

That’s why it’s always a bit jarring when I have to take off the headphones. That place I was just in vanishes. I’m suddenly aware of where I really am, no music, looking around for a sec. Everyone else is doing their thing. Waiting for the bus. Or choosing yogurt at the grocery store.

I want to ask them “, Y’all didn’t hear that? Didn’t you see that?!”

But they were just on a sidewalk or at the grocery store. They weren’t at the disco with me just a minute ago.

Back to the real world, in all its good and bad parts.