THINK AS A WHOLE

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” H.E. Luccock

In our individualistic society, we sometimes forget this simple fact— for some things, we need other people.

Whistling a song alone can be a satisfying activity. But if you want harmony, you need more parts. It’s often true that the beauty created by a group in tune with each other surpasses anything that could be done alone.

When a team works together, more can be accomplished than if each of the parts did the work in solitary. The inspiration, the camaraderie, the innovation that can come in playing off each other can be truly sublime. Or it can be awful.

What makes the difference? I think it comes from thinking as a single whole, rather  than as separate bodies, minds, and wills in competition with others. St Paul describes this well in his analogy of the church as a body.

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? But now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it pleased him.”*

There are lots of different kinds of bodies. You have human bodies, of course, but there are student bodies, the body politic, bodies of work and ideas, bodies of water, government bodies, church bodies, and corporate bodies. Like a symphony orchestra, each body has many different kinds of parts. If we don’t realize the necessary diversity within the wholeness of a body, we are missing something important about it.

How easy it is to see a discordant action out of context and simply dismiss an individual or a part as “other.” But in our own bodies, if a toe hurts, it affects the whole body. It isn’t an “other.” A hand can’t decide to go to the store without bringing the whole body with it. And so it is with an organization, a country, a world.

When we don’t think in terms of whole bodies, we may think that someone else’s faux pas is simply their own. But when we think in terms of a body, we see how all actions relate to the whole. We can choose to see a battlefield or we can choose to see a symphony in the making.

To think a politician’s tirades or an inner city’s violence are their own problem is missing an important point. One wrong note among the parts affects the whole performance. If we want beautiful music, we simply must stop and help the discordant part get it right. We may not be able to do this personally, but we can do it in our own thoughts.

Everything we take in from the world affects our body of thoughts. So in one way, we are what we see.  Plato said, “What thou seest, that thou beest.” When a group of musicians is practicing to make a beautiful piece of music, there will be times when it sounds chaotic or ugly as they learn their part. But as each musician has the ideal complete music in mind, he is able to work towards the successful final product. This does not mean that everyone has to do the same thing. Each instrument has a different part to play—different notes, rhythm, timing—but plays in the same tempo, dynamic, and style. The important thing is to appreciate the differing parts while doing your own part well.

Thinking as a whole body is absolutely necessary to create a beautiful symphonic piece. And it really is true for the success of other groups as well. We each have the responsibility for learning our part in relation to the whole and in relation to the musical composition before us. None of us will accomplish beautiful music if we ignore or blame others for mistakes, try to do their part for them, or fail to do our own part.

“You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness,” Mary Baker Eddy wrote.** Whether it is a physical body you are considering, or a political body, when things aren’t going well, try this. Instead of feeling victimized by this body’s dysfunction, embrace it in your thought. Embrace is a loving term. It implies that body is not something outside of our thinking and influence, but something within us. If the music isn’t going well, or the health of the body is in question, instead delineate thoughts of health on it. Appreciate the different parts and visualize them as competent, caring, and conscientious.

Whether it’s a knee joint or a knee jerk, describe or portray the body to yourself in the most loving terms. Remember that Spirit “has set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it pleased him.” Think about the original pleasing part and purpose of each member and the original composition by the Composer that each activity represents. You may not be able to whistle a symphony alone, but with a lot of love and good humor, you might be able to whistle one together.
I Cor. 12:13-27      SH 208:29-31