Orchestra

A conductor taps with his wand, waves his hand and lights dim as a discord of variety of instruments fall silent. In a semidarkness he gently waves his hand again and a sweet melody emerges from a flute hidden in the dark. On another wave violins join in tune and then others and others. Sounds and their rhythm, formed by groups of instruments, start to build a variety of distinctive "characters" or feelings that gradually start interplay. Sometimes dramatic, with a conflict - our Western preference - that results in a cathartic finale or a resolution of a conflict that brings a relief and opens the door to new levels of our understandings or feelings. Sometimes - it is simply cooperative. Building upon and refining initial themes (feelings) until a grandiose structure emerges that is often "summed up" in a grand finale.

A part of this picture could be seen in Science Daily article "New 'Clock Gene' Uncovered: Genome-wide Approach Yields Results." It also points at its source.

A conductor in our brains is called "master circadian clock" - a small patch of brain cells that "ticks" - rhythm - a "skeleton" of music... And everything else within our bodies, even brain, follows the rhythm as well as "clocks" within our genes in each of billions of cells of ours.

A really impressive array of "clocks" tuned to each other and "ticking" in unison. And when we add to it our feelings, sketchy images and cultural sketches something like a "music" emerges - a "music" played by an immense "orchestra" no conductor ever dreamed of.

But there are also other "clocks" around us. Cultural "clocks" for example. Although I can't point my finger at a "master circadian clock" of our cultures - our individual "clocks" do "tick" in unison. (An abstract, we call time, for which we constructed our timepieces, might be such "master circadian clock" of our cultures.) People do appear at a meeting at about the same time and place. People do play music, sing and dance. In a basketball game they do pass the ball to a team-mate without looking. People do tune themselves to each other...

And so, our cultures "tick" - rhythm - and "sing". Even more impressive arrays of "clocks" tuned to each other.

But there are also other "clocks" we tune ourselves with. Sun and Moon are only the major ones known to us and to the rest of the life on this planet since the beginning. A theory we call Gaia only indicates a "song", of staggering proportions, we are just starting to "hear" - in bits and pieces.

There is an infinity of "clocks" around us that is likely to go far beyond our capacity to imagine. The "music" we, and everything around us, might be playing is well outside of our reach. Will it stay so? Well, I would say, this depends on us.