I discovered the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony during my junior year in high school as my family was falling apart. I used to fall asleep to it every night, looking outside the window up at the black night sky, as my mother and father fought for the last few times. I imagined leaping out of my bedroom window and running across the rooftops, soaring into the dark sky and staying there forever.

The second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony still moves me to tears, for the same reasons it always has. It is by turns utterly dark and utterly blithe. The music reflects the contrasting forces that have always shaped my perception of the world. It reminds me that salvation lies in accepting the complete, utter futility of human existence while still being able to laugh and weep and hold the people you love, all the while feeling everything around you, brilliantly. lt's still difficult to listen to.