Making Music Out of Discord

Sometimes, when the chaos of our world feels too overwhelming, I gain perspective from thinking about the vastness of our universe in space and time. I recently listened to a TED Radio Hour podcast, “Big mysteries explained through your senses.” In this, professor of astronomy Mark Whittle described how he can express sounds created in the first 400,000 years after the Big Bang in a form of music that our ears, approximately 13.8 billion years later, can hear and understand. To do this, he had to raise the frequencies by 50 octaves and narrow the harmonics in pitch, frequency, and width so that our auditory senses can pick up the sound. Because we evolved out of the same primordial soup that emerged at the beginning of the universe, he noted, it makes sense we can figure out a way to listen to our own origins. Pondering that certainly makes you forget your particular day-to-day worries—at least for a moment.

You may, understandably, ask what this has to do with our community here on Whidbey. Am I just trying to avoid dealing with the turmoil of our current challenges in society by literally “spacing out”? No, I believe that this perspective does have an application right here and now. Specifically, it has to do with listening carefully to what may seem indecipherable and making music out of what may at times feel so overwhelming that we lose our sense of agency and creativity.

At Goosefoot, we try to listen consistently to the many needs of our community and determine how to cluster the right notes to form a “chord” of collaboration so that we can help address what might appear insurmountable. For example, we increased affordable housing by launching Island Roots Housing, paving the way for them to develop and complete Generations Place, the first family-sized workforce rental housing in Langley. We purchased a deteriorating historic building, the Cash Store in Bayview Corner, and a distressed shopping area, Bayview Center, and turned those into homes for vibrant local businesses, including a community grocery store, The Goose, which in and of itself bolsters the local economy in multiple ways.

The point is we all can make music out of what may feel like discord when we bring our attention, willingness, and creativity to bear on the problems at hand. And now Goosefoot hopes to create another place where we can make more music together. It is in the form of the soon-to-be-open Gander Café and Bakery, an expansion of The Goose Community Grocer. This space in Bayview Center has remained essentially vacant since Covid. Later this month, it will become a new hub for people to create their own harmonies by connecting with friends or grabbing a bite to eat during a busy workday. Please join us for The Gander’s grand opening at Noon on Friday, October 23rd! More details in our newsletter.