Skip to content

Ellen Eldridge

mental health journalist

Menu
  • About Me
  • Momster
  • The Formative Power of Music
Menu

too many ghosts?

Posted on July 15, 2023July 23, 2025 by Ellen Eldridge

My return to writing in journals was like a return to active drug addiction after a handful of relapses with my drug of choice: the pen. I grip the barrel of the pen tightly between my fingers, and press the ballpoint tip and empty the ink chamber.

Music didn’t have everything to do with it; neither did the delta 8/9/10 gummy experimentation.

I’m pretty sure I could recognize the right path, but I’m not sure where it lies.

randomwhere

I have used music as a measure of similarity when getting to know someone. Genre doesn’t matter as much as the opportunity for conversation. Diversity is a controversial word believe it or not. Georgians, at least, are more concerned with keeping buzz words out of schools than guns. But the First Amendment gives us the right to use whatever words we choose. Why should the Second Amendment cut in line?

Where was I?

In 1996, I was standing at the fork in the road trying to figure out which way to go. I knew I needed to get out, and travel through cities if not stay. Of course I insisted on doing college my way.

“Third Eye” by TOOL starts with a sample of Bill Hicks doing a comedy show about drugs and their effect on music and art. I met and fell in love with an artist who left me with a memory tied to a line in this song.

We’d lost touch over time as these things do. But right there, about a minute past the middle of the song, the lyrics catch up. And we did.

I’ve long loved TOOL and the band’s music, Maynard’s lyrics, and side projects. So, the mood of a song, what I learn from it and what memories return change over time as I return to listening.

I’m way past any musical interim now. But I’ll never stop listening to and with my “Third Eye.”

Category: blog, The Formative Power of Music

Post navigation

← the water’s edge
the sirens of middle school →
  • March 1, 2026 by Ellen Eldridge Tour of duty: Season of the school bus driver
  • January 23, 2026 by Ellen Eldridge Revenge of the prankster child
  • January 16, 2026 by Ellen Eldridge Of is a preposition
  • January 9, 2026 by Ellen Eldridge Womanhood
  • September 19, 2025 by Ellen Eldridge Nine Nineteen
© 2026 Ellen Eldridge | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme