His voice rippled through, hitting high and low chords, unclenching jaws and fists.

The two currents run side by side in life, one rising the quality of conditions and the other failing them altogether. It is the difference between a holistic approach to that of a hobbled one; where instead of bringing all the parts together towards a common aim, each part clamours loudly and has its own way in succession. The mind daydreams, the arms twitch, the shoulders tense and the heart is clouded. The voice emits a tune which reflects this entire state, where a sound of discord conveys itself from the vocal chords of one man to the ear drums of all those around, impacting each in an accidental way. Quiet and clear the mind, relax the body and open the heart, and that tune turns to sonnet and the reaction of all those present will share a similar affinity of approval.

There is no substitute for composure, for only when it is present does a man exist to some appreciable degree. When his attention is absent, when it is lost in dreams of what was, will be or sheer fantasy, everything is left open to accident. The manner of his posture, eye contact, gestures and the tone of his voice will all convey themselves with this message. Is humpty dumpty whole or is he broken into pieces? The psychological state reflects the physiological one, and vice versa. The man in the room who is sensitive to the nuances of the outer facade will see right through into the interior of those who stand on his left and right. A pompous narcisist will fail to elude from others the undeniable reality of what he is, for his body will reveal his intentions with not a strain of detail left out.

What a man is must be gathered together, so that the parts aren’t left to shirk their duties out of laziness. The llamas speak of inner sovereignty, where the reigning authority is an observer deep inside, treading lightly through a man’s inner landscape, ensuring that all the guards are at their posts, the cooks in the kitchen, the drivers onstandby, and the bean counters sitting at their desks. As long as a man considers himself a single whole simply by the fact that has has one body and one name, he will be doomed to a life characterized by absentminded, half-steeped, clouded existence. The days that have come and passed will bundle up together and his memory will be split into small pieces, with one part remembering one thing and the next another.

There is great beauty to a grounded presence in this world. Everyone feels the difference in quality, inwardly as well as in outward recognition when it is witnessed in another. There is flavour to be tasted in the performance of every manifestation. Songs can be sweet, savoury, sour, and so too must we be aware of the same difference in how we appear and manifest. A gesture of poor quality and effort will, like the wings of a butterfly, create a stirring echo which creates waves and wakes of reaction in others. Seen from afar, like a bird fluttering miles above, the consequence of good or bad behavior will always have a greater impact than one realizes from his own limited perspective. And the depth of that impact, the potency of it, will depend entirely on the richness of the quality.