Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Law of Opposites and Fixed Properties of Time

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice - Robert Frost

I always thought Robert Frost got it wrong since I was brought up in a religious Muslim household, and was always told to believe that the world might end in hellfire. I always feared such a fate, to burn in hell for evil deeds but fire did present an intuitively acceptable way to punish anyone who had done a severe and grievous wrong. And so many other religious books seemed to preach or warn of hellfire for those who incurred God's wrath. True to his name, Robert Frost seemed to dispel such a notion with his poem Fire and Ice and seemed to show that ice would also be an acceptable means for the world's destruction. This brings us to the law of opposites, those of fire or ice or fire and water. Consider for a second, the fundamental rule that governs the law of opposites. Fire is hot and can be blazing and is the absolute opposite of water. Water is cool and does not burn or rage. Fire owes its existence to water and vice-a-versa. Fire would not be called fire if there was no water. However, water is water, and fire is fire, but fire is no longer fire if it is consumed or extinguished by water. Fire, however, cannot consume water since it's flame would be immediately extinguished upon touching water. Thus, the law of opposites relies on an inverse relationship since fire exists and water exists, and both rely on each other, but one can consume the other, while the other cannot. Thus, the immortality of each entity is real such as those that govern fixed properties of time. Consider shapes such as a square and a circle. Each has a distinct shape and relies on the other for its verifiable existence. However, while the circle may fit inside the square and be consumed or appropriated by the square and lose its existence, the square cannot fit inside the circle, thus showing the inverse relationship. Same as if you had a cylindrical object that may fit inside a rectangular box but the box cannot fit inside the cylinder. Consider, colors such as black and white. Or writing on white paper with black ink. The color blank can consume the color white but not the opposite, thus the inverse exists. More examples follow such as light and dark. Dark can consume all light and the little light that we enjoy during the day is really illuminating complete darkness. Thus, dark can consume light but light cannot consume the dark, thus, the inverse exists, providing us fixed values in time and space that are irreversible and unrecantable. Other opposites come to mind and we can always find the imbalance or the inverse that exists, thus providing us more insight into how the universe is created. We rely, knowingly or unwittingly on a plethora of inverse laws that govern our existence and show us that properties and values are fixed in an infinite space such as time. Can the inverse be broken? Why should such a rule exist in the first place or govern the existence of all things that gives us a sense of order. But disorder abounds in the consciousness with such a delicate order in the first place. The stillness of the problem gives us pause. We must consider all actions with respect to the laws that govern existence and reflect wisely on the words of Frost, who shows us that hardline beliefs are sometimes born out of our own ignorance.



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