The universe is not binary

☞ Microprinciples

Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.
–Zhuangzi

Despite all efforts to divide things in two, the universe is not binary. As concepts, the extremes are clear: day and night, black and white, male and female, good and evil. In reality, each dyad (now that’s a ten-dollar word) flanks a wide spectrum of possibility.

Remember this when you feel yourself pulled in two directions. “Should I stay or should I go?” There is perhaps a third option—and probably hundreds more.

Non-binary thinking is useful in analysis too. Critiques that reduce the efforts of an artist or creator to “good” () or “not good” () aren’t worth a damn. Criticism that reflects the how, what, and why of something? That’s what’s up ().

After all, most dichotomies are arbitrary. “Pepsi or Coke?” Why not a Fanta? “My way or the highway?” Murder your first born ideas! There may be a middle road because All endeavor requires compromise. “Particle or wave?” It’s neither. It’s both. It’s everything, everywhere, at all once.