Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.43

Does the sun undertake to do the work of the rain, or Asclepius, the bringer of health, the work of the earth, the fruit-bearer?

 And how is it with respect to each of the stars, are they not different and yet they work together to the same end?

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6 (tr Long)

Each thing will play its own part within the whole. It may seem a small part, but that makes it no less important for the whole. It is a distinct and different piece, with a role only it is meant to perform.

I once had a beautiful vintage Rickenbacker 4005 bass guitar, complete with a stunning fireglo finish. Like any good Rickenbacker bass, it growled back at me whenever I played it. Heck, it growled back at me even when I looked at it. Whatever amplifier or effects I put it through, it would always sound like a beast just barely tamed.

There was only one problem. There was this little annoying buzz on the D and G strings, especially higher up on the frets. No one else seemed to notice it, but I certainly did.

“Can’t you hear that?” I’d cry.

“Nope. Sounds fine to me.”

I did everything I could to that poor instrument in order to find that one little flaw. I adjusted the bridge, changed the gauge of the strings, and I fiddled with the truss rod. I would even put my ear next to the tuning pegs while playing, convinced at one point that the problem must be there.

Then one day I suddenly saw it. I didn’t just hear it, but I saw it. A single screw on the top pickup was vibrating with the higher notes. What did it take? A mere quarter turn with a Phillips head, and the satanic buzz was completely gone.

Now this will tell you quite a bit about my ridiculous sense of obsession, but it also tells me quite a bit about the order of things. One tiny piece, the tiniest screw, made quite a difference in how that fine bass sounded to me. That screw didn’t have to be anything except itself, but it did have to be tightened just right to make the whole thing work just right.

Each kind of thing is different from every other kind of thing for a very good reason, because their individual natures serve within the relationship of all of Nature. The harmony is not from a mere conformity of identity, but from a rich complementarity of identity. This is true of any tool a man has made, however simple or complex, which is itself a mirroring of the pattern of all created things.

We will swing from insisting at one moment that everything needs to be the same, and at another moment that everything needs to be different. Sometimes we are enamored of unity, and sometimes we are drawn to diversity, and we will then foolishly oppose these principles to one another like jealous lovers.

What we might be missing is that things are indeed different, but they are different in order to serve exactly the same greater purpose. The many exist for the one, and exist within the one. 

Written in 6/2007