Metaphors hint, but never tell all. You cannot hold a metaphor in the understanding of your mind. We hold water in cupped hands only briefly. Metaphors are the language of the heart. They do not replace physical reality, but I wonder if they are not, in fact, more real than what we taste and smell and touch and hear and see. Can the adjective become more tangible than the object it describes?
In the west we are taught a bullet list kind of understanding; clinical, logical, and methodical. If 'a' is true and 'b' is the same as 'a,' then 'b' must also be true.
I cannot imagine reading a book without at least occasionally reading the footnotes. Footnotes can lead to wonderful bits of understanding, new authors, and new ways of thinking about something. The author has gone to a lot of trouble to insert footnotes. Shouldn't we be respectful and check them out?
Stacking what we think are facts one on top of the other can lead to seemingly logical conclusions. In the Mismeasure of Man Stephen J. Gould wrote, "As a practicing scientist, I share the credo of my colleagues: I believe that a factual reality exists and that science, though often in an obtuse and erratic manner, can learn about it. Galileo was not shown the instruments of torture in an abstract debate about lunar motion. He had threatened the Church's conventional argument for social and doctrinal stability: the static world order with planets circling about a central earth, priests subordinate to the Pope and serfs to their lord. But the Church soon made its peace with Galileo's cosmology. They had no choice; the earth really does revolve around the sun."
The church had no choice is an interesting statement. Can you feel the personal triumph in that statement? Feeling is beyond logic. I would not call feelings footnotes, but I do see patterns of similarity.
Squares can be controlled and easily built, one on top or one beside the other. Squares can take you places. They are made up of straight lines that have a beginning and an end. Squares are logical. Squares are power.
We measure and track and document the linear until we come to the end of our short life. Someone picks up, as best they can where we left off, but they are not us. Do they see and interpret the data the same as we did? Do they carefully read our footnotes?
Circles are a problem, like metaphors the implication for much more is there. The concept of circles is motion. They are not static. Where is the beginning? Where is the end?
We love digital because it can be controlled by us. Analogue is a mess. It is difficult to control. Sometimes the peaks and valleys are outside the range that we have set to reveal the video or audio we want to control. As always, the key word is control.
We are fast replacing analogue with digital. Does it mean analogue will one day cease to exist? That depends on whether or not you believe that one day you and I can be scanned into a digital image. Even then, if that is someday possible, the footnotes, the spirit is beyond being digitized.
Bitmaps and pixels can be manipulated into beautiful images, but you must know the process and the order. There are round and square pixels, but even the round pixels are set in a square frame. If you enlarge your creation you have a mess.
Vectors are something totally different. They are not limited to shapes built on squares. They are math driven formulas that can be enlarged and reduced with no change in quality. Their only limitation is us.
As I have written before, we all have choices. Why does Gould see this as a battle between science and God? Has science discovered something God did not know, did not create, did not reveal? Do you think God feels threatened?
Unfortunately our western, legalistic and digital way of thinking, is becoming more prominent in the east, the home of the metaphor, because of the tangible benefits; wealth and power.
For over a century we have tried to deprive Native Americans of their metaphors. To their credit some have maintained their beliefs. Those who have not have either been assimilated or victimized like every round peg in a world of square holes.
Despite this there are pockets of rebellion. Books on all kinds of spirituality continue to fly off the book shelves. The square world knows deep inside there is more. Unfortunately, until the church, until you and I can dump our own agendas and acknowledge Christ as head in all areas of our own lives, this thirst for life will continue to look where Jesus isn't..
The world, the so called global economy, even you and me, all of us are trying to bring everything under our control; ourselves, each other, even God. We long to make this world a digital one where we can beam someone to heaven so they can come back and tell us there is nothing there. I don't believe it. There will always be more on the page than we can see. The author, my author, your author, has provided footnotes for all who want to see.
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