Harmonics

Harmonics

There is a rhythm to all of life and it is recognizable to each of us. Individually and corporately, we know it when we see it.  Or when we feel it in our soul, perhaps.  This is what I want to pursue.

What is it that makes a book "good", a song "wonderful"?  We use terms such as "the words spoke to me", or "I really felt it", and expect the one that we talked to, to understand what level of intensity that we mean.  Even as I write this, I expect that you understand what I am trying to convey, at the level I am trying to convey it.  To those of a traumatic event or a shared experience that then try to express that to another that did not walk those steps or hear the sound of the gun shooting your dream, they somehow ring hollow and thin, not quite off key but leaving both (the listener and the speaker) not quite complete.

Consider the role of a gyroscope.  Although it is really just a simple looking top that spins a certain direction, there is a value to it.  Actually, the tire on your bike is a gyro, and so is the baton in the parade.  They suddenly come out of the darkness when you start thinking about it. The effect of a gyro is to bring a resistance to altering effects that come against what the gyro is connected to.  So, a bike tire wants to stay upright when spinning, a gyro in a plane wants that plane to stay level or perpendicular.  These are simple and accepted.  They are also a form of harmonics.  So then, a harmonic is a form of gyro and that makes sense when we say that we wanted that song to "keep going", or "the night to last forever".   We can relate to the idea being put forth.  There is also the issue of "orientation" to consider.  You can call it context if you want.  So, in this frame of reference there is this orientation.  Change the template, say from the office to the office party a couple hours in and the real, but different character, comes out.  Now you see that there are different gyros spinning at all times, but also in different orientations.  Make a list of topics and you get different responses from different people on each of them.

In a gyro there needs to be a motor to keep it spinning.  So too, there is a heft or weight that is involved that gives the gyro it's effect.  More weight less willing to change, more speed has the same effect, but with different characteristics.  As well, each harmonic has a operating range that is optimum.  More speed will tear it apart, too little will dull it's effects.  Consider the tire on your car.  They all have a code that is used to tell you the maximum speed rating.  The tire will fly apart when you exceed that rate for a period of time or a degree of speed above it.  So, the little donut spare tire wants to go less than 55mph. You can go way over that for a short time, or you can go over that a little for quite a while, but it will fail at some point.  The same with running a race, the dash is just that because you cannot run that pace over time without coming apart...

Friendships are the same.  Thin and weightless will have little effect and few tears.  Heavy and substantive will be resistant to change from the orientation that it was set in, and tears are swift and bigger than expected when that string is plucked.  So too, add your harmonic to mine and the harmonic either takes on a strength that is unexpected, a tone that is richer and more resonant.  Or it has a dampening effect.  It can stifle and or cancel the power and momentum that I thought I had. What then.  Did I realize that I could have that effect?  I know I have seen it happen when a certain person walks into any group, or a certain person walks into "this" conversation, or near "this" person.  Some are clearly understood, like a freshly divorced person seeing their ex-spouse.  But what of the awkward feeling when you know something is "out of kilter" with a mature friendship, but don't know why.  That is a harmonic within that used to resonate with you that now is different.  We all have them, and some are the natural growth of one faster or in a different direction than the other.  Again, that can be building and strengthening, or deadening and stifling.  It is the recognition that is the issue, to know that it exists, to see its effects and work within that dynamic.  To not be blind-sided or condemning and fearful when a stronger harmonic comes into our circle.  This is what was meant when the bible talks about "this one speaks with authority, not like the other teachers".  Truth has a ringing tone that finds a resonance with us and then "we know", and we cannot escape that awareness.  You cannot unlearn gravity, or un-know a fear.  You know you have been respected by a peer when you see it.

It is that awareness that I want to speak to next.  The questions of why one person or one topic can be so penetrating and either motivating or debilitating.  In a rocket or satellite there are many gyros, and part of the reason is that they are in many different angles and strengths.  Some are adjustable in speed so that there is the ability to adjust the tilt of and therefore the direction of the movement. Some gyros are direction adjustable and some speed and some both. This is what is meant when we say "get up to speed" in a conversation or topic, as we try to get in sync with the other persons passions and or angle of looking at something.  There was a study that dealt with the "micro rhythms" of a family that was at the dinner table, and within a few minutes they had all matched the same cadence and rhythm of speech and movements.  This can be blocked, like when we reject some aspect of the speaker by such things as their hair or heroes, their past actions and or affiliations.  We then are never engaged in their aspect of a thing and become dismissive, even to the level of contempt.  As such, the empathy and or compassion is missing.  It may be why someone else is disinterested in our trajectory, or rate of speed.  Two things are involved in that, like our ability to change aspect or speed to match theirs, and therefore be understood.  And their ability to do the same.  Regarding the need to adjust the gyro by speed or orientation, some of us need a refresher course.  Willingness is not always ability, and vice versa.

When young we are adjustable, and nimble.  We can adapt to new conditions and to new leadership or instruction and we use terms like; becoming aware of, or opening their eyes to.  This is because we are born with two sets of gyros already within us. Some few are fully functional from birth and are the basic protectors of life.  The awareness to eat, shelter, poo and security to begin with, and then additional things dealing with enjoyment and fears "wake up" inside us.

There is a different kind though as well, when we need a different direction or angle of attack, we may need an additional gyro put in, and that surgery is hard and painful.  It is done when we are numbed by pain.  Pain, of a power and scope that numbs us into submission.  Like that of a friend that died unexpectedly, or your child taken from you.  This type of numbness is needed to get the new gyro implanted.  There is no other way to get it placed, and when placed, then you will hear a harmonic that before was only noise. So, from that time on there is a resonance to match that of another with that same harmonic.  There can be different stories, but for a moment and for some people, a period of time, when that is a match.  So too, when meeting again after a period of separation, that harmonic will show.  Like the smile of a long lost clandestine lover, suddenly showing in an unexpected place, or the gathering of a group that had shared the same firefight or experience.

 Something about searing pain will numb you, and it is then also, that anger and cynicism, bitterness and seething rage get placed as well.  So, when you come alongside a hurting person, know that it is pain that put that gyro there, and only by going back to that pain point can you reverse the spin, change the orientation or maybe even remove it completely.  Harmonics will vibrate in our soul, by a certain sound and or rate of vibration.  That is something that will shake apart a machine, or a heart.  Maybe there is a chance that you will listen to a rhythm or cadence and hear something you have not heard before...  Hope… And by that you will be built up, strengthened.  Buoyed, for the first time in a long time.  Or perhaps it is a harmonic in you that is to resonate in another.