Monday, June 13, 2011

Is This The Right Tempo

Tempo: The speed at which music is or ought to be played, often indicated on written compositions by a descriptive or metronomic direction to the performer. (American Heritage Dictionary)

Wouldn’t it be nice if life came with musical notation?

If we knew, from the hand of the Unseen Composer, the tempo of our lives? \If we knew, each day, each moment, the speed at which we were supposed to play the day?

It is tempting to think of life as jazz, but even jazz has it’s set of musical rules and traditions that define it as this form or that form. Imagine studying the performance of life with the same discipline and dedication that one grants to the study of music, imagine what would be possible as one slowly mastered the instrumentation and the forms of life.

That would truly be an astounding life.

My thoughts had turned to tempo this morning as I was driving into work.

It was a beautiful morning, cool, clear – a good morning for reflection and meditation (and Melissa Etheridge’s classic “Chrome Plated Heart”).

I was working through the things that I want to do before I take off on vacation next week, sorting the tasks to each evening, saving some for Friday, making the necessary contingency plans when it dawned on me that on a musical level I was arranging the days between here and there. With the week as a symphony I was looking at each day as a movement within the symphony and determining what the appropriate tempo would be.

It’s not just a matter of picking the tempo, but understanding that on many levels that music determines its own tempo, at least while composing. Life is a lot like that I think. Our lives set their own tempo as they are composing and we, as the player, need to understand the concepts of tempo and need to understand the importance of letting the tempo arrive naturally from the flow of the music – but once it has arrived, we need to understand the importance of working, properly, within the tempo.

So, as you go through the hours of your life, what is the tempo? Is it the right tempo?

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