Heroes Not Zombies

There are so many ways to think about the universe and Life. So many ways where we consider reality from two poles, seemingly opposite, but where neither can exist without the other.

What do I mean by that? Well, “night and day” would be one. Without nights we wouldn’t have days. Night and day don’t have clear boundaries, each flows into the other without us being able to draw an exact border between them. They form a continuous, seamless cycle.

I think it’s often much more useful to consider such pairs as polarities instead of dualities. With polarities we know we need them both. Whereas with dualities we take sides. We set one against another. We say “you have to choose”…….”us or them”, “this or that”, “for or against”.

Some of my favourite polarities include “wildness and discipline”, “masculine and feminine”, “yin and Yang”, and “left and right hemispheres of the brain”. If you’d like to explore any of those further you can find posts I’ve written about them by searching for any of them using the search box at the top of this blog.

However, the polarity I used most through my working life was “general” and “particular”. With every single patient I had to understand what was unique about them, AND what they had in common with others in order to make a diagnosis and find the best way forward. We are all unique. AND we all share certain characteristics with others.

We are all separate and we all belong.

Which polarities are most illuminating for you? Any of these ones, or some others?

I’ll just add one more that I’ve used a lot. “Order and Chaos”. The concept of integration is a key way of understanding health in complex systems, such as human beings. Integration is the river which flows between two banks, order on one side, chaos, on the other. Too much order and we stiffen up, and get stuck. Too much chaos and life falls apart. We progress down the river of health, not by pitching up on one of the banks, but by sailing down the integrative flow.