CENTER POINT
THE CENTER FOR SELF-CHANGE NEWSLETTER

Vol. 2, No. 6 - JUNE, 2008

THE RHYTHMS OF LIFE

J. Kingston Cowart
"The Change Maker"

Rhythm: Movement or variation characterized
by the regular recurrence or alternation
of different quantities or conditions.*

On May 25th, speaking as a representative of the San Diego State University Alumni Association, I gave a brief address at the commencement ceremony for the SDSU College of Education (from which I received my Master of Science degree in counseling some years ago).

I was very fortunate to have been asked to speak on that occasion because otherwise I would not have heard the speech given by the university's president, Stephen Weber - a speech which I found especially remarkable for one particular element.

Truly, I have never heard any commencement speaker give graduates the charge laid upon those present on that day.

President Weber is a philosopher by discipline and that may be why he spoke as he did - yet in any case his words were wisdom rare and profound.

He called upon the entire contingent of doctoral, masters, and bachelors graduates - who filled half the floor of Cox Arena - to "feel and appreciate the rhythms of life."

What wonderful advice!

Note that President Weber did not speak of the rhythm of nature (as a biologist might have put it) but rather the rhythms of life.

Such a statement does precisely what philosophy is intended to do: It makes one wonder. One asks "what does it mean" and begins a search for meaning.

For the ancient Greeks one of the rhythms of life was enantiodromea, the cyclical rise of that which is below and commensurate fall of that which is above, as embodied in the ever-recurring phenomena of sunrise and sunset.

This principle is more than a rhythm of nature because it affects the careers not just of heavenly bodies but also of human beings - whether kings or commoners, knaves or fools. We see it too in the waxing and waning of empires, so many of which have come and gone throughout history.

The Chinese concept of yin and yang is very similar to enantiodromea. It has a unique difference, however, which gives it special significance.

In the Chinese symbol of the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi)

we find the continuous swirl of yin and yang forces, each having at its core the essence of the other.

Thus no matter how far a life, career, relationship, or government may go in any direction, there will always be an eventual reversal (great or small) - followed in time by a return once again.

In our individual lives this continues until our lives themselves are at an end.

As for the rhythms in which it all occurs, they may be regular or chaotic; linear or syncopated; pronounced or subtle.

They may be as different as the frenzied tempo of a wild winter storm at sea is from the long, slow measure of a soft summer afternoon in your own back yard.

They share a key element nonetheless: They will change.

That's why it is important for us to be able, as Dr. Weber said, to feel them - to be sensitive to them. If it is true, as we sometimes hear, that "life is a dance" then we must feel its rhythms in order to move with right timing.

We must also appreciate those rhythms. To appreciate something is to assign value to it.

When we are sensitive to the rhythms of life and value them, then we grasp the importance of timing with respect to them and are thus able to be timely in response to them.

Timeliness, along with sincerity, lies at the heart of all right action - which is the key to a life well lived.

What better advice, then, could a philosopher-president of a major university give to a graduating class than to "feel and appreciate the rhythms of life"?

Yet, how do we learn to practice that?

We learn ultimately by being willing to learn.

It is in the nature of such things that they reveal themselves to us as we attend to them.

One good first step is to think back on your own experiences and those of the people close to you. If you watch the past as though watching a play, you will begin to see the rising and falling of various curtains at particular times. You will recognize the cues that called different players to enter and exit the stage. You will get a sense of how and when one thing led to another.

Do this sincerely and meditatively over time and you will develop the ability to sense the present and the future in the much same way: with an intuitive perception of shifts in the patterns of events.

IThen your steps in the dance of life - the decisions you make at important choice points along the way - will move in response to rhythms others may never feel or appreciate.

*The American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language, 4th Ed.

J. Kingston Cowart

JOIN THE CENTER CIRCLE

It's easy. Every Wednesday
for a few minutes between
10:00 and Noon sit down and
turn inward - through prayer,
meditation, self-hypnosis or
any modality you choose -
and send out good thoughts
to everyone else in the circle.

I'll be there. How about you?

J. Kingston Cowart
www.self-change.com
619.561.9012
Post Office Box 19005
San Diego CA 92159

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