Every Piece Matters

Balance lies in our relationship to ourselves, rather than to the gods or to another. Balance develops rather than unfolds, and it develops because we reconceive ourselves as an individual already living in balance.

Sometimes this recognition comes about because we overhear ourselves talking, either to ourselves or someone else. When this happens, we begin wondering about the role of balance in our lives. In doing so, some of us set out on the royal road to individualism, a journey of epic elitism whereby we seek that which fullfils every aspect of our being's existence. 

Balance is the finest of miracles as it creates an utterly different yet self-consistent voice for all existence – and perhaps even, for nonexistence. In fact, the more one contemplates the concept of balance the more one is in awe of this mysterious state. As with time, we talk about what it is, but when it comes time to describe it, the burden becomes tangible. Like the great theologian and philosopher, St. Augustine (CE 354-430), famously wrote of his puzzlement in The Confessions:

What is time? In one asks me, I know. But if I wanted to explain it to one who asks me... I plainly do not know.

Augustine is not alone in his bewilderment. Perhaps I am not alone in mine with respect to the concept of balance. What is the ultimate balanced cosmological state? The question of balance in our daily lives is easier to solve: plenty of rest, healthy eating habits, intellectual fuel for the mind, excitement and adventure for the spirit, love for the heart, creative output for the whole being, so on and so forth. But how do we explain our drive to exist in a state of balance, other than for self-preservation and a general sense of well-being? Does balance have a direction or is it a result of all directions simultaneously collapsing into it? It is an intractable yet fascinating question. 

God is either the ultimate Shakespeare, or an insoluble enigma depending on whether one views their life as a comedy or a tragedy. God is either existent and all-pervading or non-existent and illusory, depending on whether one views the world from the foundation of "stuff" or from the foundation of "wonderment" and "possibility".

Either way, if we do not want the world's cosmic author to kill off our character - without at least one memorable line before exiting stage left - it would seem that we must naturally assume that it is up to us to create something that only we could create from the unique culmination of our life experiences. When parts are not being used, it does seem as if they get recycled ~ and I for one am not ready to get recycled yet. If necessary, I will walk the tightrope, I will do what I should to maintain the highest degree of balance so that from this state I can produce something unique, just to stick around a little longer... not out of fear of going somewhere else, but out of reverence that any of this exists as well as curiosity as to where it is all headed.

For me, the zone of creativity is highest when the rest of my life is in balance. This is the place I perceive as being “in the zone…”

The zone is the outward limit of human achievement: aesthetically, cognitively, morally, and even spiritually. Self-creation is, perhaps, tangible proof of the ultimate cosmic balancing act.

Balance will go on explaining us, in part because balance invented us. Of course, one could argue that it is imbalance gave rise to life and that once the cosmos puts itself back into balance we will cease to be.

I don't know about you, but my ego does not enjoy the thoughts associated with the idea that our entire existence, our entire world might just be one bad cosmic hair day anxious to correct itself.

I can only offer an subjective interpretation of the many types of balance interplays.

To catalogue life’s largest gift is an absurdity: where to begin, where to end?  A few poems, or perhaps a joke or two might shed some humorous insight on the subject. Or perhaps a picture of an amazing elephant balancing on a beach ball.

Which is more amazing, the elephant or the beach ball?

If you're paying very close attention, you might start noticing patterns in what looks like a good deal of cosmic foreshadowing going on, which could be explained in purely physical terms, at least in terms of their structural connectivity. Of course, maybe all of this is just one giant cookie crumbling through space and time. 

The only thing I really do in life is experiment. I have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Take for example an early experiment I devised in elementary school whereby when I encounter a negative experience (external situation or internal thought or feeling), I immediately employ all the concepts I have taught myself to keep that negativity at bay, to prevent it from causing too many ripples in what normally feels like a sea of balance for me.

Despite my best efforts, things happen, and perhaps it is a good thing they do otherwise I might not have anything interesting to write about.

At first there was nothing, and then it exploded. In this sense, balance has been trying to put itself back together again ever since. In this respect, every single piece matters!