Rhythm

Pulse. Beat. Measure.

Joseph Jordania recently suggested that the sense of rhythm was developed in the early stages of hominid evolution by the forces of natural selection. Whatever.

I prefer the idea of rhythm as a vibe that you hear and feel and respond to. And the very happy surprise to me is that, at 72, I still respond to the same rhythms I did 50 years ago. It’s a blood flow thing, a feeling that makes your insides move, so your outsides automatically follow through. It’s an awareness thing, where you hear your surroundings and they combine with your thoughts, and all of a sudden you’re dancing, maybe not literally, but mentally for sure, and if you’re one of the lucky “literally” people, dance on!

I come from a musical family. When I was little, I studied piano. Then, I moved on to percussion. The piano gave me the melody and the beauty of notes and chords and touch. Percussion gave me the outlet of force and control and impact. Together they gave me a personal vibe and a way to hear the world, or at the very least, accompany it. 

It gave me a rhythm. All my own. And I still walk to the same beat, and laugh with the same syncopated joy, and feel with the same low note depths of empathy and understanding.

My point, I suppose, is this – life is better with a soundtrack. And it’s never too late to change the record, if it’s killing your mood.

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”

–Maya Angelou