Singing keeps you young.
“Singing is the best thing you can do for yourself. I sing in the morning – usually I wake up with an old tune going through my head.[sings an old tune.] I don’t care if you can’t sing, you get the good out of it anyway.”
Dick Van Dyke, to Al Roker, while celebrating his 100th birthday
Yes, there’s more to it than that. Good luck, good genes, good diet, good habits.
But I think there’s something to the idea that making music, and especially singing, can keep you alive. Ask music therapists about the way patients with dementia reengage when a favorite old song comes on!
Listening to music won’t do it, though. It’s making music. And singing is our birthright. Singing is as old as humanity, and as important as any other human innovation.
Sing!