Every human person contains within them the art and depth, secrecy and mastery of a symphony.
Every person acts/ speaks/ decides due to the measured unity of the systems playing together the music of existence and interaction.
One section (in my mind, this is the percussion section) of the personal-symphony is the balance (or imbalance, I suppose) of chemicals streaming through the system, also included here are the pathways the brain has built, what the hormones are currently saying, how the mind is currently firing. To some extent, we have little control over this–depression or maybe desire or maybe anxiety…who can say, on any given day?
Then there is the section based on memory and childhood: how was he put to bed, as a child? With a kiss and a soft blanket, or something far worse? Have people mocked her, in the past (recently?) Do people smile big, toothy smiles when he tells jokes at parties? Does her phone buzz with care and texts on her birthday?
Closest to the strings section, I suppose, are the things that impact someone today: are they hungry? How did they sleep last night? Did someone make dinner plans tonight? (Did someone else cancel plans?)
All of these sections and more, working together.
But, largely, by the time the average human reaches a decade or so of life, they are masters of concealing the very symphony their body has worked so hard to produce. And so we wander, mostly silent, with these works of art happening inside of us and inside of every other person we meet or greet or pass on the street, but everything hidden by masks and silencers and painstakingly-built sound-booths that muffle all but what we carefully script.
What a privilege it is, to hear a tiny part of music, though.
Occasionally, on special days (a field trip to appreciate great art!), when you say, “How are you?”
Someone (sometimes) will say something like, “There is something that has been hard lately…”
And then, clasp your tea mug a little tighter, for to know a person more deeply is the most beautiful song we may ever hear on this planet.
