Rhythm

Episode #700

July 2, 2022

For all things, listen to the music.
There is a rhythm to everything.

Listen to the cadence of using a tool. If you do not hear it, apply it.
There should be a regularity in a hammer stroke.
There is a whine of an electric tool that strikes a certain note.
Shoveling should be like keeping time on a drum.

Bicyclists know about rhythm.
Their legs reciprocate at the same frequency no matter what the terrain.
All the work is done by the gears.

Poetry gives voice to the music of language.
But all text speaks to the melody of thought.
Rhythm should be obvious in the structure of a sentence.
If a subject is forgotten, a beat is missed.
If the complement is missing, a resolution might not occur.

Sport, gymnastics and dance are rhythmic expressions.
Ever tap your foot to the passing of a ball?
Has your heart beat to the leaps, tumbles and flips of a floor exercise?
When your body gives itself up to rhythm, you dance.

The heart beats, blood pulses, muscles contract and relax, nerves fire.
It is the rhythm of your body’s song.

Thought is a pattern whose form is difficult to see.
We have impressions of what we think.
We interpret those impressions as ideas.
The ideas are only the titles of the patterns in our mind.

A computer program is like a million dominos lined up in a circle with decorative loops.
When the “RUN” command is given, the first domino falls.
Each command falls into the next until the program reaches the end.
The end is a new beginning.
All the dominos right themselves and the program continues.
It is this repeating loop that the programmer hears when the program is just right.

A clock ticks with a rhythm derived from complex gears.
The relationship of one gear to another precipitates a cadence.
The cadence is a sound that mimics time.

An engine is like a computer program.
Something starts it with a push.
One push pushes another until the machine is in motion.
The rhythm of the motion is the song of the machine.

All sound has a frequency.
Each frequency is a rhythm.
Frequencies combine to make complex sounds.
All those sounds are songs.

There are many parts to the Universe.
It is made of matter.
Matter is energy.
Energy is made of atoms.
Atoms are positive and negative charges in motion.
In the quantum realm everything is strings.
Some say quantum strings vibrate in a 4/4 time.
No wonder we like rock ’n roll.