Tuning In to a Different Rhythm

The tick-tock metronome of content and news drowns out the real signals of life.

Jazz in New Orleans, where I’ll be for Jazz Fest in May.

I’ve been feeling down this past week. It might be because I’ve been listening to too much discordant music: the uncoordinated, nonrhythmic pulse of content, which is less like a pulse — which indicates life — and more like clashing cymbals (symbols!). An infinite array of them.

I’m writing this on Palm Sunday, which begins a week marked by a very specific cadence of time for me — one which transcends whatever is happening in the world: the engagement-grabbing headlines of the news cycle, the twitter timeline, the car horns in DC.

Some make crosses out of their palms.

Anyone who has entered into the life of a religious tradition that is marked by history has entered into a rhythm which is not subject to or determined by anything that a politician says; or the release of the next episode of Succession (believe me, I’ll be watching tonight); or even the traditional “work week”. If they enter deeply, they find a higher frequency to which they can tune in.

I do not mean to suggest that this “tuning in” is possible only for those who are part of an ancient…