Keith Barlow: Tension and Release

Keith Barlow shares how tension and release are a natural part of life.

Tension and release are universal in the human experience.

Take in a deep breath, hold it as long as you can — that’s tension. When the stress in your chest becomes too much, let it out — that’s release. The more stressful the tension, the more welcome the release.

Musical tension is an increasing sense of distress from changes in harmonics and cadence and such. As that tension builds, there is a feeling that a musical resolution will ensue and when it does, that’s release. This tension and release are key to making the music more interesting.

Tension and release are in literature, too, where the protagonist has some dramatic conflict for 200 pages, and then prevails in the end. There are exams in school, where you study and memorize and cram and fret and eventually take the test, to find release when you finally lay your pencil aside. There is a certain promise of release after tension.

Tensions and releases are also a familiar part of the human condition. We live the daily cycle of wakeful activity and then sleep. Another example is the nine months of pregnancy and the resulting delivery of a child. And we adjust to the changing of the seasons every three months. And then there is the ultimate, overarching and inevitable tension and release that we call life and death.

Release after tension is the natural order of things, but it isn’t guaranteed. Who hasn’t sat to the end of [Alfred] Hitchcock’s “The Birds“ and felt an unrelenting, unresolved unease as Mitch and his passengers drive off in search of a hospital — the antagonists looming over them, seeming poised to attack yet again. I see unresolved tension as a cause — or maybe even a definition — of anxiety.

The philosopher [Friedrich] Nietzsche said, “What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” In other words, even if a release doesn’t ensue from your tension, you’ll nonetheless be better conditioned to handle tension when it comes at you again.

Tension and release. Tension…and release. Tension…and…

With a Perspective, I’m Keith Barlow.

Keith Barlow is an IT professional in the East Bay. His tensions and releases are mostly balanced.