My husband and I weren’t sure what started the bullying. Our son’s ADHD? Being adopted? Was it because he’d stood up to the bully who called his Black friend a “slave” and demanded he carry his cello? Our son had faced racism early—when a drunk white guy demanded his tiny 6-year-old sister return to China, where we’d adopted her. Luke stood up for her too. Whatever caused the bullying, what matters most was how he finally conquered it.

Luke started playing Lego Star Wars at age 5. I objected to the violence, but when Luke Skywalker (whom we’d named our son after) got blown up, his dad said it was only little Lego pieces flying apart. Years later it was Halo with vivid images of people getting shot, which bothered me, despite the music being better than I’d heard in any video game. As a professional musician, I appreciated that. And since our son was a talented violinist, I thought that hearing fully orchestrated gaming music might inspire his own playing. And I hoped he would spend less time gaming and more time practicing the violin. There’s substantial evidence behind what music study can do for the brain.

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