Exploring Ideas

Rhythms

The rhythms of life are inescapable. Birth eventually leads to death, day turns to night, and Sunday leads to Saturday, always giving seven days a week.

Rhythms
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Contrary to what someone may have told you, you’ve got rhythm. It may not seem to appear on the dance floor, but that might only be arrhythmia, which is still rhythm. However, music is not the only place where rhythm appears in life. We all use clocks, pay bills, sleep, eat meals, and have a heartbeat. All of these are rhythms of life. We literally cannot live without rhythm.

A heart with no rhythm has stopped, and that person is dead, even if temporarily. They may be revived, but no heartbeat means no blood flow or oxygen perfusion. CPR creates an artificial beat to sustain blood flow in the hopes of that heart restarting. The defibrillator sends electricity into the body near the heart to get it to restart. It’s like jumping a car battery.

From the simple to the complex, the rhythms of life are inescapable. We live with them; we live because of them. Birth eventually leads to death, day turns to night, and Sunday leads to Saturday, always giving seven days a week. Because they are everywhere and inescapable, they impact how we live.

Part of the origin of the word rhythm is the Greek word rhuthmos, the particular manner of flowing. A percussionist, the main rhythm section of a band or orchestra, works to play their rudiments perfectly, as a pianist would know their scales. These rudiments are rudimentary, or basic, to the flow of percussion in music.

An interesting thing about the rhythm of music is that it does tend to get us moving, at least a tap of the foot. Sometimes, the flow of a music piece even gets me conducting. It’s almost like rhythm somehow has life in it. Rhythms are rudimentary to our lives.

Crespi and Manghani go so far as to say, “Rhythm remains one of the most productive terms for critical inquiry into our social, political, and cultural lives.”[i] Often, the idea of a good percussionist is that they influence the flow of music, but they are not “overly” there. Influences on life’s flow can go unnoticed when they must be considered rudimentary.

Let’s explore some of life’s rhythms and consider the impacts they bring when they flow right or are off. Awareness of the rhythms and arrhythmias of your clients, your community, and your own life can help you make wise assessments and informed choices.

Day and Night
As the world turns isn’t just an old soap opera; it literally makes our days and nights. The earth's rotation in a set rhythm as we also revolve around the sun brings order to life. What if there was no rhythm to our days and nights? Even areas near the north and south poles with months of no daylight or no night have a rhythm that allows for adjusting for these known periods. Rhythms help you know what’s coming next.

Sleep may elude you for a while and be very irregular, but you will eventually fall asleep. It is part of what we living creatures do as a life rhythm. Some of us need more than others, but a little shut-eye is necessary. What if your bed is in your car, and there are five of you? What if three of those five people have school tomorrow?

Cities and towns have a different feel depending on the time of day. Walking alone at night through a city has a very different feel than that same walk in the light of day. We even speak of the difference between two things being “like night and day.” Not every night is equally dark. Nights are impacted by the moon's rhythm going from new to full. Full moon nights have a different feel as they light things up more.

It used to be that when the sun went down, work ended. That is no longer the case. Shift work has changed the world. “Workday” means different things to different people. This shift in workday rhythm has created some challenges. One of them is family life. The activities of nights and days are all confused. And then there is the childcare challenge. What do you do as a single parent if the only job available you can find to meet your family's financial needs is a 2nd or 3rd shift option? The world is built with 1st shift rhythms.

Tides
Most of my life has been on the South Carolina coastline known as the Lowcountry. For some, knowing the tides of the ocean and rivers is a way of life. High and low tide charts vary for waterways, but there is a rhythm. We have charts because the recurring patterns allow for exact knowledge of where the waterlines will be.

Often, tides are about access. Sometimes, high tide means having access, and sometimes, it means no access. At the beach, the walking room is at low tide, and on some beaches, there is little to no room at high tide. Some waterways cannot be navigated for portions of a day due to low water levels. This means that access can be cut to some islands, necessitating arranging the comings and goings of their days. Sometimes dry ground is helpful, and sometimes it isn’t.

The ebb and flow of life for a person, family, neighborhood, or city varies. But they all have their rhythm. We sometimes speak of how we are doing as “drowning.” When a person is drowning, they can’t stand up because life is over their head. A person can only tread water for so long before being too exhausted to go on. I remember almost drowning when I was a young boy. An older cousin who knew how to swim and had her footing reached over and grabbed me, probably saving my life. We must be careful not to assume our capacities onto those around us.

Sometimes, a hurricane ignores the tide and drives in the flooding waters. It can look like this bulletin[ii] that recently came across in a CharityTracker network:

I have a client whose water was disconnected yesterday. She was diagnosed with colon cancer this past January and has been trying to keep things afloat. She has 4 children at home, and all are under the age of 15 years old. She is not working and only receiving a small amount of disability benefits.

What do we do with this real-life story? If it’s overwhelming for us to hear, how crushing do we think it is to live? We wish we could reach over and pull them out from drowning. Why can’t we?

Calendars
Our calendars are the rhythm we are most aware of. It probably feels more like arrhythmia, but it is rhythmic nonetheless. Work, ball games, gymnastics, dance, and music lessons can fill a family calendar. Some children and families can only wish these activities could fill their calendars.

The school calendar may be one of the more significant calendars for families. School is childcare, which means a crisis might be created when school is out for the summer, holidays, and weekends.

Paydays and due dates for bills don’t always line up. The less money a family has at the end of the month, the more significant this dance is to the rhythm of money. The cost of living is different from the cost of surviving. Due dates and penalties can make a difference. The rhythms of the calendar can’t control the flow of resources.

Seasons
As empty nesters, my wife and I regularly have conversations in which we look over our lives and remember the seasons. Most of the memories move us to laugh, celebrate, and cherish. But we wish we could go back and do over some elements of those seasons. I’m sure you have those, too. When evaluating life’s rhythms, hindsight is 20/20, like evaluating every other part of our historical experience.

The birth of a new baby is a significant change to a family’s rhythms, especially the firstborn. Life’s rhythms are upended for a while in almost every way. Beyond sleep patterns, this new, totally dependent human being has their own rhythms that are now influencing the orchestration of that home. Beyond that, the baby’s day-to-day and night-to-night are work, childcare, housing, new living expenses, and new medical bills. Was it a previously two-income household? Will that continue?

When a loved one dies, a person’s world can experience an eclipse that slowly recedes. This is particularly true if they were a primary or sole provider for the home. A loss like this suddenly creating a single-parent household can be devastating. In the later seasons of life, this loss is anticipated. Death at any time causes an undoing, but unseasonal death is more of a jolt.

For the widows and widowers, there may be an income issue, but there is also loneliness. Losing a relationship creates many rhythm changes from things “we used to do together.” A new freedom may also be experienced because of the level of care the person who passed necessitated. There can be a sense of guilt and shame from that sense of relief. Those feelings clear in time as new rhythms are found.

Some parts of growing up are more complex these days. A study quoted by USA Today notes that 51% of parents believe Millennials need more financial assistance than past generations.[iii] Buying a home to begin creating personal wealth is increasingly difficult. This is especially true if massive college debt is added to the mix. The spouse, two kids, and a house with a white picket fence “song” has changed.

More on Arrhythmias
Known as arrhythmia, a heart beating too slow (bradycardia) and too fast (tachycardia) must be managed or resolved. The overall presence of these heart arrhythmias is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Up to 5% of the US population have a heart rhythm issue.[iv] A person can live with arrhythmia, but not untreated. The same can hold true for the arrhythmias we face in everyday life.

Sadly, we get used to having arrhythmias of poverty and human need as part of life’s rhythmic realities. Should it be that way? What if we viewed these arrhythmias through the lenses of normal rhythms to help us discern treatments that could lead to full recovery of healthy rhythms?[v]

Wars, the depression, the 2008 market crash, the pandemic. We got through them, but the impact is real and even sustained with some, even if you only consider the lingering fear, anxiety, and PTSD. Past “wars” still drive the rhythms of relationships between families, neighborhoods, people groups, and nations.

The arrhythmias of disabilities, including mental health, can bring some challenges to a life. A disability may be from birth or be a rhythm interrupter resulting from war or a bad accident. PTSD can be a new addition to a person’s or family’s life that alters their world significantly. These are arrhythmias of life that, for most affected by them, lifelong adjustments must be made.

Much about the rhythms of life has been briefly explored here. The whole idea is to consider them and their counterpoint arrhythmias when making assessments that determine responses. This blog post is about something other than solutions. It is about our awareness of the inescapable rhythms of our lives as human beings.

Action Points

  • If it’s overwhelming to hear some of the stories people are living, how crushing do we think it is to live? We wish we could reach over and pull them out from drowning. Why can’t we? What would it take?
  • A question to ponder personally and to ask a client: “If you were to put your current life to music, what kind of song would it be?”
  • A heart attack necessitates immediate response, or they may die. What are some of life’s arrhythmias in your community that need crisis mitigation plans, or lives will be lost?
  • What normal rhythms of life have been described in this post that you and your organization need to become more aware of and sensitive to in your client assessments and responses?

[i] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/rhythm-and-critique/rhythm-rhuthmos-and-rhythmanalysis/DE578FA6FDFCF7A36BA8DB6CC744BA14#

[ii] https://help.simonsolutions.com/en/articles/1247032-how-to-add-a-bulletin

[iii] https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/credit-cards/study-parents-still-financially-support-adult-children/

[iv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK558923/

[v] https://www.charitytracker.com/en/blog/crisis-convergence-and-concentration


Do you desire to strengthen your CharityTracker or OasisInsight network to new levels of collaboration and impact? Reach out to Chuck today to schedule your conversation: chuck@simonsolutions.com

ED645C80-CA25-41C2-8B6E-A6E7FA346EC1_1_201_aDr. Chuck Coward serves as Community Impact Specialist for Simon Solutions, Inc. Chuck has invested over 35 years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles, including as a pastor, non-profit Executive Director, Director of Development, businessman, consultant, university professor, The Struggle Coach, and the founder of Entrusted Foundation. Serving to make people and communities stronger is his great passion. Chuck is the proud husband to Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to eight.

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