I was watching the start of an Ed Sheeran video when suddenly I had a brief but powerful moment of clarity that tied me all the way back to string theory. The theory posits that the fundamental constituents of the universe are not in fact particles but one dimensional “strings” vibrating at specific frequencies. When I think about that and think about vibration in general it brings me to a moment in middle school when I was learning about the guitar and the idea of something so tightly wound on both ends and how any movement of that thing creates a vibration and, in the case of an instrument, that vibration creates a resonant sound.
That tight winding is suspension–it is creating a level of tension that forms upon it the framework for the existence of that tonal quality. Every string vibrates differently based on the points of suspension, thus creating a different sound. Now, I realize this a complicated theory that I am working towards and, in some ways, will sound totally unrelated, but hear me out: I was thinking about my kid. I was thinking about what he defines as his existence and the ‘tonal quality’ of that existence. In any phase of your life you are somewhere along the spectrum of happiness to unhappiness. Imagine, if you will, that this happiness itself is a vibration. When you experience certain things it allows your ‘self’ to vibrate or be suspended in this state of happiness. People can hack it and fall into the temporary drug state that triggers the chemicals that would be otherwise triggered by being in the right state. However, meeting the right person–your counterpoint–may cause you to vibrate at the same level as those drugs. You therefore live in this state of suspension where everything is good so long as you are connected to that other end of the string.
I think love is like that. I think finding someone who makes you vibrate like that is love. I think he is in love. I don’t think it necessarily works both ways all the time, and when two people vibrate in sync, that is where the real magic happens.