Rhythm

 

Jeremy uses the ever-present trains as an illustration of the bell choir. Many of the cars are beat up, their clapboard sides scrabbled with graffiti. Each car has had its own experiences, its own story, yet each now belongs to a single train; all going in one direction, all pulled by the same engines.

"It's funny, don't you think, that when we sit in the church we think of the train as a single thing. We forget that each train is actually a collection of many different parts, each with their own burdens and destination."

The sound of the trains was a constant in my childhood. I spend many long hours “at the tracks” with my friends, watching the cars rush past and placing coins, nails, and rocks to be smashed under the weight of the locomotives. Our favorite game was to lie in the weeds that shouldered the tracks. The sound and power of the trains was intense. The ground would shake, and the pounding of the wheels over the seams was overwhelming.

It is this rhythm that Jeremy wants Stephen to understand. He also wants Stephen to see that the train is really a collection of individual things; that without the direction and pull of the engines they would go nowhere. He wants Stephen to understand his role in the choir:

"There is a rhythm to the train. The thumping of the locomotives, the screeching of the iron wheels on the corner, the pounding of the axles across the tracks. The rhythm is produced by all the cars, each contributing their part to the whole. But the rhythm is driven by the locomotives. Without their pulling force the train would be silent."