If you think of life as a symphony, it becomes easier to understand how I have come to consider Foster Harmony as the preeminent objective in our existence, the overarching tenet of the worldview I call Distilled Harmony. The simultaneous rise of the pandemic in the midst of, here in the US anyhow, the most virulent and divisive political and social disruption in living memory, has provided ample evidence of how life becomes stressing and distressed when we allow Harmony to become overwhelmed by discord. It doesn’t have to be this way.
We have seemingly allowed every aspect of life to become a contest. It is “us” versus “them.” Whether it is politics, athletics, music, art, philosophy, theology, you name it, there is our side and then there is that lying, deceitful, untrustworthy bunch of idiots who couldn’t recognize truth if it came up and spit in their eye! And hey, that sounds like a good idea! You see what I mean? Dr. Seuss’s brilliant “The Butter Battle Book” is perhaps the finest explication of this tragic human flaw I have ever read. If you haven’t read it since it first came out in 1989, give it another go. Especially if you are someone who reads to kids, read it to them by all means, but remember he is talking to all of us.
So how do we avoid becoming just another braying discordancy in this angry babble? I think by going back to the idea that life is a symphony, and we control only one instrument - our own voice. We need to listen to it. It may be as simple as that. Speak gently. When possible, speak quietly. Ask for clarification. Look for agreement. Try to listen more than you speak. Do not interrupt. Be a violin, not a trumpet. Listen to beautiful music, played, spoken or sung. Avoid the brash, the confrontational, the angry, the derogatory, the argumentative, the hateful and demeaning. We have a tendency to mirror that to which we attend.
Life can be a symphony, but only if each of us lends our voice to make it so. Foster Harmony and the rest will fall into place.
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