Sunday, November 8, 2009
Oscillation
I went for a long walk this morning to clear my head, and discovered a park in an inner suburb near to where I live. How did I not know before now that this park exists? It is absolutely gorgeous, filled with frangipani trees, massive gum trees, palms, and flame trees with their glorious red flowers strewn all over the grass. I could hear the birds talking to one other and watched them gliding back and forth between trees. There was a great big ibis picking away at the grass near a little bridge. Then I saw it...
A swing.
I couldn't resist. And it began... back and forth, back and forth. I closed my eyes and let the pendulation hypnotize me. I escaped. For about ten minutes, I escaped my thoughts and stresses. It struck me how different the sensation of going forwards is to the sensation of going backwards. Have you been on a swing lately? No, I can imagine probably not. But you must do so, and soon. Going forward, up towards the sky, sends your body into some kind of whirling feeling and it's exhilerating. Going backwards on the other hand, is not unpleasant but doesn't feel like much at all. I pondered the very obvious fact that going backwards is the necessary means to go forward. I also considered the fact that there was no need for me to turn around in order to go backwards to go forwards again; on the swing I was still able to face straight ahead. Back and forth, forwards and backwards, again and again.
The very implement I used to escape the inside of my head—that glorious park swing, is the perfect representation of what was going on up there in my little brain. How similar the motion of a swing can be to the inner workings and processings of the mind.
The way thoughts can be like a pendulum swinging back and forth between past and present, uncertainty and objectivity, need and desire...those mutually inclusive concepts that must go hand in hand in order to propel cognitive resolutions.
Hmmm...suddenly my head hurts.
A swing.
I couldn't resist. And it began... back and forth, back and forth. I closed my eyes and let the pendulation hypnotize me. I escaped. For about ten minutes, I escaped my thoughts and stresses. It struck me how different the sensation of going forwards is to the sensation of going backwards. Have you been on a swing lately? No, I can imagine probably not. But you must do so, and soon. Going forward, up towards the sky, sends your body into some kind of whirling feeling and it's exhilerating. Going backwards on the other hand, is not unpleasant but doesn't feel like much at all. I pondered the very obvious fact that going backwards is the necessary means to go forward. I also considered the fact that there was no need for me to turn around in order to go backwards to go forwards again; on the swing I was still able to face straight ahead. Back and forth, forwards and backwards, again and again.
The very implement I used to escape the inside of my head—that glorious park swing, is the perfect representation of what was going on up there in my little brain. How similar the motion of a swing can be to the inner workings and processings of the mind.
The way thoughts can be like a pendulum swinging back and forth between past and present, uncertainty and objectivity, need and desire...those mutually inclusive concepts that must go hand in hand in order to propel cognitive resolutions.
Hmmm...suddenly my head hurts.
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