Opposing Forces

Symbiosis, my work-in-progress, is a study of opposing forces.

My life has also become a study in opposing forces.

Where the forces act with equal and opposite strength, there is balance, supposedly. 

Chaotic Paralysis?

Is harmony nothing more than restrained chaos? Is chaos a bad thing or a good thing?

Maybe. It depends on which side of the opposition is your viewpoint. When a predator jumps into the midst of a covey of quail, chaos ensues. To the quail it’s a negative experience. To the predator, it’s a sheer adrenaline rush.

Sometimes I feel like the predator. Other times, not.

Anyway, today’s post is cryptic. Probably I should have tried to write a poem. I think it would have been one of the very sparse kind that says a lot, but likely would have been just as hard to decipher as what I’ve just written.

How far removed

Youngest is outside right now, whittling on the mechanism of his newly cut frog gig. It’s made from a 6′ sapling section, about 2″ diameter. He needed to cut it a few feet longer, but this is his first effort and I’m not about to discourage him now. When he gets to putting it through trials, he’ll find out if his barbs were sturdy enough or the shaft long enough and make adjustments accordingly on his next attempt.

At first thought, to many, what he is doing sounds barbaric and cruel.

How far removed we, as a society, have become from our origins as nomads and hunter/gatherers. Nowadays, most of us never think twice about the food we put into our mouths, not to consider whether it was once a living thing nor about the idea that it died so that we might eat.

We live each day in a world of predator and prey relationships, and yet rarely notice. The project my son has embarked upon is unabashedly ‘predator’ in nature. And I guess what gives me that sense of satisfaction I am feeling, is that he knows it.

The same kid holds a kitten with a tender smile on his face and cheers for chicks hatching from eggs in the incubator.

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SYMBIOSIS , my WIP deals with predator/prey relationships and the balance of energy among life on earth, sometimes symbolic and often outright.

“Wu Wei”

The Taoist concept of “Wu Wei” involves knowing when to act and when not to act.  – from WordPress’ new theme announcement

It’s funny how many concepts relate to the foundational premise of my current work-in-progress, SYMBIOSIS. And odd how such insignificant things like a combination of two words used to describe a new WordPress theme could strike me in such a way that impels me to dig deeper.

The deeper I looked, the more it resonated and the more it pleased me to have recognized it.

Wu Wei means ‘effortless action’. The way we breathe without thinking, or the water ebbs and tides in the ocean, or the moon revolves around the earth – all actions occurring without planning or thought, or conscious effort. It relates to the premise of my book through the concept of homeostasis, or balance. All of nature seeks to find balance. It’s unconscious, unplanned. Earth naturally seeks to maintain balance.

The big picture sees Wu Wei, perhaps. On the individual level of interaction, this action is not necessarily effortless and in many cases is far from it. A mouse caught in the clutches of a snake’s detached jaws is not going to go quietly and without struggle. Yet the delicate balance between predator and prey is important to the overall balance of an ecosystem, which in turn contributes to the Wu Wei.

This is a small example, but I have succeeded in drawing a parallel from the world at large to my writing on a very personal level. Wu Wei exists in my writing life as the sense of ‘rightness with the world’ when I am actively writing every day. When I am living my purpose in an effortless manner, just being the writer that I am.

Where interaction is personal, between me and keyboard, words rarely yield themselves without a struggle.

The White Fawn (via Granny Woman Ozark Herbs)

An Ozark white fawn story from D’Coda.

 

Down by the back garden crows were calling and calling –for hours. One crow in particular stood out, its cry had a strange urgency and peculiar accent…as if in crow dialect. Just before leaving the garden, the cry came out of the forest, walked up to Cansas, in the form of an albino fawn…only a few days old. The two standard poodles, never tolerant of unknown animals, were gentle towards it and the usual chase/attack didn’t happen. Usually its a … Read More

via Granny Woman Ozark Herbs

Love is like a predator.

One of the comments on yesterday’s post led to thinking along this line. How is love like a predator?

1. Love chases quarry in relentless pursuit. The object of affection submits when it recognizes futility. On occasion, prey escapes.

2. At least in early phase, Love consumes. And just as with any other diet, variety is a good thing. The same meal, prepared in different ways. No I’m not advocating what you think.

3. Love never is passive. Either it is active or it is not. Even love from afar is active at least in the mind of the lover.

4. Even in the mythological imagery, Cupid walks around with a quiver full of arrows. He is  ‘predator’, stalking unwitting ‘prey’ and he shoots them with his arrow.

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Okay, so I couldn’t come up with number 5. But now maybe you can understand how I can draw the parallel of love to predator

Stragglers. More Predator – Prey psychology

Yesterday on my way into work, I slowed for yet another herd of deer crossing the road ahead. I’ve hit three deer in the past year, so I’ve come to recognize certain patterns. You see, the ones I hit were the stragglers. inadvertently, I played the part of modern predator. When a herd travels, there’s always one left somewhat behind, heading up the rear.

Most herd animals order themselves into a hierarchy. I’ve not studied deer, so I’m not sure, but I’ll bet the last one up the trail is the least dominant and most submissive. And I’ll bet it’s not a highly desired position.

It’s almost certain the deer themselves do not consciously realize that one is making a sacrifice for the group, but it is.  I’ve taken out three of them already, and if I were a cougar, wolf, or coyote – that’s the one I’d target in my hunts.

There is a symbiotic relationship between prey and predator. It’s not often considered, especially by someone rooting for the quarry to outrun the predator. Without prey, predators would starve. Without predators, prey would over-populate, over-consume resources and eventually starve. They both need each other to avoid starvation. A balancing act.

These ideas of balancing and symbiosis are reoccurring themes for me. It occupies a lot of my pondering time. The main character in my book is awakening to her role as predator and eventually will have to find that center point between predator and prey within herself.  It will read as paranormal fantasy, but there is oh so much reality between the lines.