My husband does not like to drive with me (he as passenger) over twisty mountain roads. My husband does not like to listen to the music of Miles Davis.
I have decided today that these two phenomena have a common root. I’m not sure the root has a name (chaos), but I think I can describe it.
Mountain roads will cut sharply off to the left any time the mountain says to. And I’ll follow. In the car. And so will Miles’ music. But according to an underlying structure: play according to the geometric shapes. Not sure which shapes Miles said to his fellow musicians: rhomboids, circles, squares (heaven forfend)?
The civil engineers (I knew one in college) have their rules for making the roads’ underlying structures: it must be wide enough for the cars, flat, on groudn that won’t crumble. And the curves mustn’t be too curvy, and banked a bit where necessary and possible.
And the instruments must begin and end at the beginnings and endings, on the same beat in the same key and changing both together as the curves appear.
Country roads have their rhythms, I want to tell my husband. You have to listen for them and follow along. But I’m not sure he’d understand.
white pebble 