Judging by my quotidian activity and observable preferences,  I relate most emphatically to music not mathematics or science. Nonetheless harmony is to me best described in the context of physics; namely, component frequencies of a complex oscillation (movement back and forth in a regular rhythm). I see my life as just that.

Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, and its main goal is to understand how the universe behaves.

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps the oldest. Over much of the past two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century these natural sciences emerged as unique research endeavours in their own right.

Lately I have been on a roll. Life is all boomps-a-daisy. I am enveloped by one of those peculiar periods in one’s life when things just seem to be endlessly uplifting and cooperative. Today at breakfast for example my sliced green organic Granny apple was the height of perfection – crisp, cool and sweet. Then the organic blueberries with the steel cut oats and wild honey. Oh my!  Indescribably tasty and fresh. One sacrament after another. This commendable grace was followed by an utterly beguiling bicycle ride along the wide open beach (at low tide naturally) with a strong wind from the east at my back. All of which by the way was preceded by the further serendipity of favourable communion with strangers along the path, exchanging a cheery “Hello!”, sharing spirited though fleeting glances with intelligent and knowing eyes, being able to filter seamlessly through crosswalks with the graceful approbation of car drivers, thankful for having donned the light jacket in view of the cool air and the smug recognition of an overall period of quietude on the island as the prospering cloud accumulations diminished the beach crowd proportionately.

Nor are the component frequencies all physical. As I sit here relishing my triple strength espresso with my Bose headphones attached to my noggin I am being treated by the algorithms of Apple Music to unprecedented fortuity – from Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns to Orinoco Flow by Enya, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op, 11 by Frédéric Chopin, Méditation (Massenet) by Duo Similia, Concerto for Harp in B-Flat Major by Jeanne Lemon and the Tafelmusik Orchestra, The Best is Yet to Come by Milana Zilnik, Porgy and Bess: Summertime by George Gershwin, Introspective (From Home) by Dirk Maasen, Day 1: Golden Butterflies by Ludovico Einaudi, Asia: Asia by Sofiane Pamart, Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II, among others.

Only days ago I thought I had lost the use of my (now) cherished headphones as His Lordship briefly acquainted himself with their alternate “mono” audio capability. Turns out his current hearing devices fulfill the same ambition.  Now that we’re cave dwellers universally on the same floor (as opposed to having our studies separated by a storey as was the case in our former house) the significance of headphones and Noise Cancellation are not to be dismissed.

At table this morning we engaged in a philosophic assessment of our life together.  I consider occasional inward reflection among the many other circadian though comparatively colourless imperatives of survival. Naturally the ambition suffers the air of astonishment when rendered in those clinical terms. When adopted however it evokes important but oft neglected words, the things we consider “unspoken” but recognizable – which they seldom are as demonstrably as we assume. And it isn’t only venting what we think of others; it also entails the obligation to speak of oneself, not from the vantage of endorsement but rather of discovery.  There are after all plausibly as many things to discover about ourselves as there are about others.