Quodlibet

Well that was a mistake.  Several actually.  Probably the first was letting Merril choose the word at random from the dictionary.  I knew I was in trouble when she said “q”.  Q words can be doozys.  Q does not auger well.  I thought it will be qu and I was right, as a look showed q words start qu.
Trouble was the word she chose I had never come across before.  Perhaps it is just my sheltered life but “quodlibet” was new.  It had been lurking in my dictionary.  I think it had any way.  It was like a tree falling in the forest with no one around.
No doubt it had been there, but I had been blissfully unaware.  I got on with my life.  I at no stage felt my life was missing a quodlibet.  Even facing it now, I don’t feel like my life is suddenly complete as a result.  It is more like a burden.  It is something I feel I need to deal with, to be able to move on.
According to this dictionary “quodlibet” can mean two things.  “Topic of philosophical or theological disputation.”  I mean three of those words are more than six letters which is not a good start.  It is also a musical term which is the one I think I will go with. “Light-hearted medley of well-known tunes.”
It does seem weird to me.  The first meaning is so heavy.  The second is so light.  But I cannot help asking myself.  “Well known” to who?  Maybe it is familiar to a group of friends of mine.  Ok I know my credibility suffered as soon as I said a group of friends but stay with me.
It just gets worse – I mean better.  According to Wikipedia there are three types of the musical quodlibet.  I mean I was having trouble getting my head around one, let alone three.  The third type is a simultaneous quodlibet. “In a simultaneous quodlibet, two or more pre-existing melodies are combined.”  All I can say is I hope they are played in the same key.  I reckon it would sound terrible if one was in G and the other in Eb or something.  As for more than two, I think that would be just showing off.
I was gob smacked before and I am even more gob smacked now.  Wikipedia had a whole history of quodlibet starting in the Renaissance or the 15th century.  I mean here I was growing up, going to school, heading off to work, mucking around with stamps, getting better and then worse at table tennis, and I did not know about quodlibets.  That whole time, there it was in the background, only bursting forth now.
Which really begs the question, now that I know, what am I to do with this newfound knowledge of quodlibets?  I do know that I have no superpower as a result now.  In fact nothing has changed really.  I do not feel the need for a special handshake that signifies the knowledge of quodlibets.
I am the same lovable person I have always been.  That is a personal opinion of course.  In fact, I am wracking my brain as to any situation I would be in where I could use it in a sentence.  Oh well, I guess I am doomed to carrying around this knowledge with me and not be able to use it.