String Theory

My guitar doesn’t agree…

While tying knots and pulling ropes, setting me up for tent living, I wondered off. I know it is supposed to be wandered, but this was definitely wondering.

One end of the string on the hazel bow I made…

First this.

I believe it important to find my own words to express what I think. This means I try to avoid opinion which I see as a collapsed idea. Nothing too bad about that but it has no business in an attempt to find new ways to look at the world. The same goes for quotes. This academic habit has its place but the condensed representatives are the killer bees of creative exploration. They are the flag on the conquered mountain. Not very helpful while trying to see the next step. My own clumsy way of telling is the telling I must do. It is very telling. And even if I utter total nonsense it serves. It triggers you to speak up, to respond and contribute. A quote says shut up and listen. One for Sunday breakfast maybe but a few more and you get an overdose that paralyses the muse.

I am not a stakeholder. Less claims here, more offerings.

If the project is too slick, you can be certain it is not authentic. Improving other peoples ideas is of course a job. It is not mine. I tinker. I improvise. Make clumsy contraptions that contain the seed of what comes next. Nothing arrogant about starting from scratch. If anything it’s humble. Not wearing other peoples feathers gets you ridicule. You will be laughed at prodding around in your strange vehicle. You won’t be rewarded for the apparent failures. I am not teaching the world here, just sharing my learning. If what is said and done is unfamiliar it is a good sign of potential. Be tolerant of the unfamiliar. And the occasional made up word.

(I am not promoting becoming unfamiliar for the sake of it. That’s like making the unpopular the new rage. Anyway, back to todays yarning theory.)

There are two opposing forces in the world. Yeah I know, stick with me, it gets better. The one tries to conserve, to hold position, to keep the same, to repeat, to know, to settle. The other force goes for renewal, change, evolution, freedom, creation, movement. New destroys old, old resists change. That’s the way we look on a daily basis at what’s going on. That’s the struggle right? Opposing forces, working against each other. We can see this on many levels. They show up in strange and complex ways in all aspects of life. In politics. In behaviour. In nature’s processes. In yurt building. All the trouble in the world seems to come from these opposites. It is duality rampant, trying to tear our world apart. From within and out there.

Our main strategy seems set on resolving this. Peace through getting rid of the opposition, the enemy. And it matters not which side you are on. The other side is wrong.

My guitar doesn’t agree. The opposing forces are exactly where they should be and it isn’t too important which is doing what. The whole thing is build around keeping the tension. Not resolving it, but holding it suspended. While it is nice to understand the workings of the instrument it suffices to know it’s them stringy bits that do the singing. The structure is in place to maintain the two opposing forces. That is what our political system is for. Not for either end to defeat the other. The construction allows the important bit to vibrate, it amplifies and shapes the sound. It provides a way to play.

Remember playing?

Maybe if more people would see themselves as a string? Allowing the incompatible tautness of the opposing forces to tune them. Holding both extremes at either end. Politics would sing again. The war with the other end would seize sabotaging the music. I love the sound of that.

You don’t have to be left or right, right or wrong. You can be a string.

Both resisting change and fighting for a certain kind of progress are futile. Both are based on a false assumption of power. I am not saying we are unable to stop or hold back change, or that we are incapable of bringing about a certain result though sheer willpower. I am saying we use a staggering amount of energy on both fronts. While the effortless harmonic movements are not originating there.

One of my drives is uncovering ways that ride the wave. Energy saving approaches of a different order. Working with in stead of against. It seems humans are great at cooperating but we use the skill to unite against whatever is the enemy of the day. The enemy is always new and always the same.

If you shift to a string perspective you can suddenly tie things together, bind the bundle to pick it up, use friction to work with you. It is the strings that make the family, the community. Of course there are opposing forces.

Writing in strings makes you able to lift heavy stuff and move it. A journey is not about the starting place and the destination. It is the string of each station and the track in between, the bead of each step forms the chain. Traveling to arrive if you cannot be where you are is a waste of energy.

My new house is held together by string. Hemp, linnen and yes, polyester (stringy molecules are an amazing bit of nature). Often the fabric will tear first, it is mostly not the string that fails. The connecting strength of a bit of rope.

A woven sphere of see-through fabric

We can go a level deeper. The hairs in the felt, the weave of the cloth, the fibers in the wood. The tendons between muscle and bone. The tubes and neural paths are all stringlike. And yes, energy seems to behave in a stringy way. It is a universe of strands. A galaxy of seen and unseen connections. Tightly woven and extremely supple.

What I love about the way string connects is the combining of hold and play. It ties with flexibility. It is adjustable, restring-able. At every level of tension there is harmonic resonance. It picks up and combines the character of the opposing forces. And it is able to transmit its own energy into the connected. It is a garment that fits like a second skin. A woven sphere of see through fabric. A dress for dancing.

So different from the steel and stone attitude that tries to fix everything. I choose a lighter way. I love how nature is able to find the easy option. Going back to nature for me is not about shades of green. It is about getting to know me. Because thats what out there. What is going on out there is what is going on in here. The big enemies are very like the small enemies (but I do prefer to start dealing with the not so big while there is still time). Reconnecting to the material world means finding out the binding. The depth of that binding can hardly be overstated.

Ignorance is not lack of knowledge or learnedness. It is being insensitive to what you consider wrong or evil, emphasising only what you like and approve of. It is cutting the string to remove the other side. It is trying to sanitise the whole environment, immunise the living body. It is having both ends of the string bound on your side, in your winning camp, and expecting music.

Drummer attacking strings…. trying to hit the harmonics on the head. (my hands and a borrowed guitar)

Back to building. The fortune tellers have announced rains and winds to visit my unfinished sphere. I’ll keep you posted.