What's in a Name?

          7676D is a meter. Kingsfold is a melody. Kingsfold is a melody in the meter of 7676D.

          Most Mormons would know Kingsfold as “If You Could Hie to Kolob,” one of the few LDS hymns in a minor key, and one of the most enigmatic and bizarre. The melody is haunting, beautiful even, and I don't know if anyone else can hear it, but there's a tinge of sadness that seems to linger in the background, like the melody has a shadow.

          I'm attracted to beautiful and sad things like moths are attracted to light. The recognition of how sad yet extraordinarily beautiful things like struggle, loss, or sacrifice are invites hope in me. Bittersweet things remind me that even though it feels like I lose more often than I win, and cry more often than I laugh, I have a life that I can make wonderful. Listening to the Kingsford melody always affords me that sweet moment where I can value the “fall” just as much I value the “getting back up.”

          So that's the significance of naming my blog Kingsfold. I'll be honest; including the meter of the melody added a sound to the title I really liked, which is mostly why this blog is called “Kingsfold, 7676D” and not just “Kingsfold.” There is, however, an aspect of the relationship between meter and melody that I feel is relevant to my blog:

          Just because two songs have the same meter, doesn't mean they have the same melody.

          Consider your background and experience to be your meter. My life and your life have meters. Maybe they're the same, maybe they're not. But even if we share the same exact meter, you and I are still entitled to have our own melody.

          My life meter is Mormon. I live life in the Mormon meter. I was raised in the Church, my father pioneer stock and my mother a convert. I am and have always been an active member, save for during my brief encounter with BYU. The melody I was taught in the Church was the “Melody of the Heterosexual Mormon Boy”, quite a lovely piece if you're meant to sing it. Even though I sung that particular Mormon melody with gusto, part of me recognized my particular rendition was dissonant with the popular tune...

          In this last year, I've started to hum my own melody. I haven't sung it very loud, mind you. It echoes and bounces off the walls of my closet, and out here on the interwebs in the form of this blog. I'm still trying to get the notes right.

          

          You see, I'm not composing the music. The melody is already apart of me; I've just got to remember where I put the score.

Haha, so there it is! Now you know Kingsfold, 7676D :)