The Rhythm Of Life

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 19 March 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Rhythm Of Life

LOYALTY TO THE CLOCK AND CALENDAR.

ROUTINE, PERHAPS—BUT PRODUCTIVE

OF RESULTS.

GAIN MORE THAN VIOLENT ACTIONS.

Throughout a wide area, if not throughout all her works, Nature is rhythmical; it is rhythm which distinguishes cosmos from chaos. Many of Nature's mightiest movements can be anticipated to the extent of moments, so faithful is her regularity. Solar, lunar and stella- bodies keep in perfect step as to tune and order. Waves are infinitely variable, but in their aggregate form as tides their action is clock-like. Rhythm is so often associated with some other activity that its supreme significance is unrealised. Music is unfettered; -rhythm is that order which, according to Alexander Pope, "is heaven's first law." Even in the monotonous, sustained beat of drums there is something to which human emotion instinctively responds. A series of irregular noises may be due to any one of a host of chance causes; immediately noises take on rhythmical sequence it may be postulated that behind them there is some kind of intelligence. It might reasonably be urged that, with respect to that division of Nature which is inanimate, mechanical action is appropriate, but since man is human he should be exempt from the bondage of rhythm. So he is. Proof of his exalted place in the scale of created things is his right to exercise a conscious measure of volitional freedom. The extent to which he exercises his will to make his life rhythmical demonstrates his possession of, or his lack of, wisdom. King Solomon, generally accepted as the greatest of the ancient sages, adopts in one of his most memorable passages the theme that there is a time to every purpose under heaven; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate. In short, he insists that life should be based on some kind of rhythm. The life of the young child conforms to no known law. The fact that it is impossible to forecast the child's next action, or remark, is part of its charm. It is everything by stiarts and nothing long. The parental function is to try and import some elementary idea of order into the young mind by means of gentle persuasion; school carries on the good work by methods somewhat more stern. But the continuous process bears witness to the fact that those qualities which ultimately make for character are dependent upon the observance of rhythm in the ' various departments of life. The power of rhythm is exemplified in natural phenomena. The drop of water falling steadily wears away a stone; not in the violent act but in the uniformly applied pressure lies the greater strength. The physiologists point out that the physical culture *sfs ch imparts rhythm to bodily movements keeps the body better preserved, and equips it to serve its owner longer than in cases where such movements are jerky and ill-regulat-ed. The therapeutic value of medicines is to be found in their rhythmical use. Few people have escaped familiarity with the phrase: "To be taken after meals." Efficacy is depen-

dent on regularity; at varying intervals accumulated doses would prove disastrous. Rhythm in human temperament alone makes social fellowship possible. There are individuals of whom it is colloquially and accurately said, "You never know when you have them, or when you have lost them." They rather like to overhear

LITTLE DROPS, CONSTANT AND REGULAR, WILL

people referring to them as "temperamental"; the term is supposed to have artistic associations. In the sweetest of life's friendships the emotional rhythm gets disturbed, and old friends drift apart. Even the most sacred of human relations depends on the regular flow of conjugal affection. Divorce court annals prove how easily the two hearts that used to beat as one can fall out of rhythm, and how swiftly, in consequence, loving can change to loathing. As in all things else the rhythmical life may be practised to excess. But, within reason, individual life is happier, organised life is smoother, when things are done decently and in order. 'To do the same things each day and every day, throughout the week and all the year, is to some people suggestive of good. And yet economic necessity imposes such tyranny upon the most respectable, and they submit to it for the most part cheerfully, realising that, in addition to their own personal advantage, they are contributing to the larger communal activity. Those who affect to be intolerant of routine are usually keenly disappointed if routine is not faithfully followed by others. Absence of regularity '" in the domestic meal seems to irrigate these types quite as much as it does the ordinary mortal. Intelligently, consistently practised, the well ordered li£e is its own exceeding great reward. It makes for economy in nervous energy; it makes for longevity. Every day in this Dominion hundreds of business men are taking a part in the appointed, task, are lunching at the same table and in the same' seat, surrounded by the same old friends. They have done so unfailingly for years. And they are satisfied with the rhythm of the day, even though at times their toil is hard and their responsibilities are heavy. By the regular effort to see something attempted, something done, they earn their night's repose. To organise life deliberately, to take some meagre thought for the morrow, to try to lay up some small amount of treasure on earth, to find the niche we seem best to fit and strive to fill it acceptably —these things constitute life's rhythm. And they who are unrhythmical are destined sooner or later to be miserable. In the ethical life the regularly repetitive act is of inestimable value; the self-denying deed becomes easier with each performance; the will becomes more flexible in the desired direction. The well ordered life is largely a matter of loyalty to clock and to calendar, but the analogy is not inapplicable to phases ofi life that lie deeper. In tjhe heart whose beat is spasmodically sluggish and accelerated there is weakness; in the life whose moral, spiritual beat is similar corresponding weakness may be looked for. That lack of rhythm explains the collapse which from time to time surprises men in some seemingly externally strong character. But, when the genuinely wellordered life stretches far into the setting sun, it is invariably filled with a perfect calm. The men and women who have sought to make of their life a rhythm also, and quite unconsciously, make of their life a melody, a melody for others quite as much for themselves. And in all such instances it is usually as true as it is appropriate that their "heaven commences ere this world be past."