The Metronome

Disorder inside his head.

We built it slowly, over time. We didn’t really know what we were doing at first - just a few crude pieces, a pendulum. It was something to focus on, something to do. It brought a sense of order to the chaos.

There was once a time when there was no disorder, but that was a long time ago. The beautiful balance of infancy decayed, became corrupted, and the homogeneous purity of the mind fell to disorder. As it will always eventually do.

A state of perfect order can never be maintained.

The particles of the psyche needed direction. The material was there; we took it and formed it into an instrument of time and sound. Not as ordered as the sanctuary of the silent witness, but more stable, and still a higher energy level than the randomness of entropy. Disorder with a purpose.

But the disorder began to grow, and we had to do something with it. We took the material, we shaped it into something functional. The disorder, the entropy, released all this energy, you see. The energy has to come out. So we used it to create a machine that would dispel the energy, a machine that would create order for us. Time is order. Rhythm is order.

The metronome. As the mind continues to grow, to change, the psyche expands infinitely; and as it expands, it continues to fall prey to the entropy. The metronome is a self-sustaining device, using the disorder of the mind to fuel itself and putting order back into the Universe. It burns the extra energy. At times, it is insatiable.

And when all else is silent, it gives us a focal point.

It is a product of disorder. We did not forsee, when we put it together so many years ago, how demanding it would become. It requires attention, leaving a deficit in other areas where attention is needed. It requires energy. It requires disorder. But the metronome is not the source of the disorder; it is our zealous attempt to create order.

Without the creation of order, there is no purpose in disorder.