AS THE YEARS have come to pass, my attitudes and opinions on a variety of topics have evolved. One such topic is “Tension.” I’ve reasoned I need more “familiar” tension in my life.
Before you decide that I may have lost my last marble, I would point out to you that a guitar or banjo—any stringed instrument—can immediately get on our last nerve if the tension on the strings is not correct. We say it’s “out of tune” but until that is resolved (remember that word) we can’t bear to listen. Imagine several instruments playing at the same time, each with random tension on their strings.
Well, my friends, people are no different. We are all, in a sense, temperamental stringed instruments. We have vocal cords which are actually living strings that get tense and relax. With them, we use the breath of God in us to speak and sing. We even refer to our “heartstrings,“ right?
Most days are seemingly mundane. The tension may be small yet still profound. The subtle sadness of a place. The yearning for something more. A loving moment met with concern about the future. A person trying to do a good job despite daily demands pushing against that.
I looked forward to retirement to get away from tension. Any work brings it. But I retired three days before a pandemic shut the world down. The humor in that, albeit dark humor, is that the tension caused by people dying or becoming quite ill from an unknown virus turned out to be tension I had never experienced before. Life was way out of tune. We all felt it! (Feel it still.)
Now that our world is drifting to a new normal, if I may use the word “normal,” there are other tense situations all around. We/I never actually got a break—a resolution. I’m living in a story where I’m stuck in the dissonant middle.
Any story can be distilled into three basic parts: Status quo. Tension. Resolution.
We’ve been learning this since we were babies. For example, I heard my daughter sing this to my grandson:
“The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout. (Status quo) Down came the rain, and washed the spider out. (Tension, what will become of the poor spider?) Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again”—(Resolution).
We were wired to function best with some tension. BUT without a resolution, it’s like being forced to listen to an orchestra comprised of out-of-tune banjos, ukuleles, and kazoos. It hurts our hearts and ears. The thought alone gives me tension! We so much want the resolution we NEED.
How do we find this resolution, my fellow spiders?
Imagine I’m sitting here in my little room tuning my guitar. It’s a set of new strings for an old instrument. Nothing wrong with the guitar. In fact, in many ways, age has made it richer in tone. But there is this brief time when I’m turning all the pegs to get just the right sound on those strings, and right at this moment, it seems a little tense.
What will happen to the poor out-of-tune guitar? Will it ever sound good again? You feel that tension too, don’t you?
Tell me. What do you think will happen next?
How will I close the loop on this story?
©️ Copyright 2022, Gary Landerfelt, MyPericope.com
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