Frequency: A fairy tale
Once upon a time lived a cetacean.
(That’s just a fancy name for any kind of warm-blooded, ocean-roaming mammal.)
There was something unique about this cetacean.
And it wasn’t its size.
And it wasn’t its color.
This cetacean sang its song on a unique central frequency.
Fifty-two hertz, to be precise — just a smidge higher than the lowest note on a tuba.
In fact, its frequency was so particular, and so unique…
that
in
all
its
long
life
roaming
the
oceans
of
the
world,
and
despite
all
the
noise
heard
in this
vast
and
teeming
environment…
…it had never experienced any particularly meaningful response to its song.
Then, one day, this cetacean had a chance encounter with a couple of oddities.
They seemed to be very far from home, but one of them — the bearded lady — surprised it by speaking.
“We heard your unique song, and wondered if we might offer you something?”
The cetacean eyed these oddities.
“What could you possibly have to offer to someone like me?”
The bearded lady wasted no time.
“If your song is frequency, you might like to think of ours as resonance and nuance…”
“And if you’ll be so kind as to sing your song again, we’ll show what we can do.”
The whale glided slowly on its way, and felt rather than saw the bearded lady and her companion flank it on either side.
It hummed its familiar, lonely tune.
It was a timeless lament, that had punctuated all the difficult spaces and places it had ever been, in its search for a larger sense of purpose, significance, belonging.
It was a frequency that spoke fathomless voids…
and also visions of beauty and transformation…
forever out of reach beyond vast and solitary wastes.
The bearded lady began, at first imperceptibly.
It weaved its resonance through the cetacean’s melody, in echoes that reverberated through cetacean’s being with an ache of recognition and longing…
and
with
a
kind
of
magic
that
pushed
cetacean’s
song
out
into
the
void
in
new
directions.
The other oddity soon followed, layering its nuance above and below and throughout the cetacean’s song,
adding light
and sweetness
and joy
and appeal
that brightened and extended the enchantment of the song.
And
then…
the cetacean completely forgot the oddities…
for
something
quite
remarkable
had
begun.
(This little fairytale-with-cliffhanger-ending is part one in a twenty part introductory series exploring the intersection of frequency, resonance and nuance. You can find part 2 “Waving to the whales” here.)
Author’s postscript, 18th June, 2018.
This first Medium piece in all its imperfect, whiteboard-sketching, texta-scribbling, pathos-drenched glory, is dedicated to a few dozen extra-generous peers, mentors, linchpins and likemindeds inside TMS. Thanks beautiful people, for the ongoing conversations, and thanks Seth for creating the space.
No affiliate links here, just genuine gratitude.
— Anaik
