Harmony Beats Balance: A Cohesive and Comprehensive Life Rhythm

Everyone, at some point, has heard the idea that we need more balance in our lives. We're told we should strike a balance between personal and work life, between leisure time and hustle, between hard work and relaxation, and so on. I'm tired of that. I've been weary of this discourse for many years because, from the first time I heard it, I was like, ugh, no, what's this about being in balance? Even with a slight shift of 0.5 grams on one side, you lose balance.

I don't know if you've ever used a traditional balance scale, the one shaped like a Y with two trays on either side. You have weights – 10 grams, 50, 100, 200, 500, and a kilo. To measure the weight of items on one side, let's say the left, you place whatever you want to weigh, and on the right, you add weights equivalent to a certain weight. That's how you find out how much a bag of flour weighs. Or the reverse: you need 450 grams of flour for a recipe, so you put 450 grams of weights on the right side—two of 200 and one of 50, or whatever suits you. Then, on the other side, you add flour until the balance matches the weight on the opposite side. That's when balance is achieved. The scale acts as a means to find equilibrium between both sides.

The problem with this concept, despite its appeal, is that it suggests we're divided. There's a side A and a side B. Work, time for oneself. It's the most common narrative we hear and know.

So, sure, you can balance 500g on one side with 10g, 20g, 50g, 100g weights, or just use one 500g weight. But it's still something contrasting with its counterpart, insisting that for balance to be achieved, both sides must sum the exact same weight.

And you know what? That's not how my life works.

I never subscribed to this idea because it never felt representative of me. My work and personal life don't weigh the same. Not all jobs weigh equally either. So, what's the benchmark? It was not the same when I worked as a waitress during summers, when I didn't have the responsibility of managing everything, as when I took charge of an entire restaurant, not as an owner but as a manager. I had to handle purchases, pay salaries, come and go, close up shop, and try not to lose my cool in the process. As a waitress, I saw those situations but wasn't responsible for dealing with them. The weight of one job versus the other is different. The time each requires is distinct. The responsibilities tied to each are unequal. When I worked as a photographer in Buenos Aires, the time for a shoot, editing, and delivering the product was much less in hours compared to getting the right projects and earning the same money as working full-time in a café. So, hold on, what's this talk about balancing work and life? There's no balance; it's an absurd idea. Because my life intertwines with work; maybe yours doesn't. Perhaps you work from 9 to 6, have a lunch break, and that's where your work ends, and you don't bring any of it home. But my work has active and passive hours, of ideas, creating, being inspired, researching, learning. I don't say it starts at one time and ends at another. So, where does it start and end to assign it a weight?

No.

You know what I say? My life doesn't need balance, nor do I care for it.

My life needs harmony.

Because, once again, music offers me breadth, richness, fluidity, transformation, history, tension, the mutation of sounds and feelings, elegance, passion, LIFE, and BEAUTY that define the kind of life I want to live. It's not about balance, not about two sides. It's a piece, an opus played by an entire orchestra.

And who are the masters of these grand pieces that remain the pinnacle of music as classical, timeless compositions?

Those who know how to use harmony.

There are moments of crescendo where the same musical scheme repeats, instruments are added, and notes ascend the scale until they reach a climax, and from there, it either explodes and goes wild or drops and goes low.

There are moments of canon where a musical pattern repeats, but it doesn't start and end; one starts, and another starts a bit later, together creating something entirely different and beautiful yet the same but delayed, generating a unique tempo.

There's allegro that instructs the pianist to play with a cheerful, bouncy, and happy tempo; there's adagio, indicating a slower pace and a different cadence. There are accent notes played with more emphasis than the rest in the measure. There are accidentals, notes OUTSIDE the scale, designed to create tension and direct elsewhere, coloring outside the lines, breaking rules and structures. Over 60 terms and names accompany each of these concepts, some related to composition, others to the intention behind the note. That's what music encompasses.

And today's great DJs also have this. It's magnificent when you're dancing and they build up (crescendo), and when you finally release everything after the drop, it floods your veins with adrenaline.

And you know what the greats, both composers and musicians who PLAY and turn these scores into unforgettable pieces, say is the most challenging, the dividing line between the forgettable and those who make history?

Debussy said it: "Music is the space between notes".

Mastering the use of silences sets musicians, actors, orators, composers, conductors, and singers apart, something inexplicable.

A piece creates impact and generates drama because of the space between note and note. Amidst minutes of crescendos, diminuendos, fortes, pianos, sharps, staccatos, legatos, among all these ways of playing note after note, where each determines a different time and mode BETWEEN distinct notes, the unforgettable ones add a tempo of silence, and the entire piece becomes a masterpiece, a capolavoro, a work of art.

It's not the notes. It's the spaces between them, and above all, it's the silences.

So, what does it mean to live a life in harmony instead of a balanced one? It's not about what you do but about rhythm, connection, intensity, volume, delicacy, the number of instruments playing, and also the silences.

You don't need an equal number of silences to sounds for the piece to be a masterpiece. In fact, it would be dull. Imagine two minutes of a song where one minute is silence, not all at once, but interspersed, playing and not playing suddenly. It would be quite displeasing.

Balance tells you to divide into two, and you'd better stay still because if a grain of sand falls on one side, it all goes haywire.

Harmony lies in composition, in interpreting the composition, in the tempo chosen to play it, in the cadence with which it's played, and in the musician representing it.

In conclusion, we should all study music. Because this article doesn't even do justice to all the nuances and magnificence it hides. And while we're at it, also physics. Because it's the science that explains the universe. And chemistry because the king of our bodies -aka the brain- operates with chemicals. And philosophy because it's the art and science that studies the QUESTIONS that have no answers.

Knowledge is a wonder. What can I say?

Put on your headphones and listen to your favorite artists. Pay attention to moments of tension, pauses, silences, and extreme highs that change so much from one point to another. And then, find a cover. Sometimes the cover is even better than the original song because it's not the song; it's who interprets it.

And if you dare, listen to the 7 minutes of the overture of Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville,' and appreciate all these concepts, even if you don't understand them if you've never studied music. Because again, the total genius Debussy said, "Music begins where words are unable to express. Music is made for the inexpressible." And if you're from my generation or a bit older, or if you're a parent of my generation, you'll hear and recognize parts that, unknowingly, you already know, why? Because of cartoons. Tom and Jerry, and Mickey Mouse used opera and the classics of the great composers as their soundtrack.

Okay, enough of me. A hug. I'm signing off.

This chapter was a great pleasure. Thank you for reading. Please, marvel at music; it's worth it. Dance, feel, be amazed.

One day at a time.