Dichotomy

Sometimes I think I am influenced incredibly by strange dichotomies.

I love technology. There is no denying this. Gadgets and computers are the wonders of human civilization, evidence that mankind can reason so deeply and leap forward unimaginably to accomplish great feats. But I also love the methods of old. There is no denying this, either. Paper, ink, wood houses, books, fire lamps, horses... simply hold a beautiful fascination for me that digital things and technological marvels cannot. Imagine the poetic appeal of correspondence by letters: sitting at a writing-desk, burning an oil lamp, writing with a fountain pen a letter to a distant correspondent, knowing it would be weeks before a response was received, and yet calmly patient. Such letters span years... and letters of famous men have been published. Sending an email or IM and receiving an instantaneous response, quick quick quick, everything blazing by, even if it is at your fingertips... just doesn't hold the same magic.

I love science. The power of analysis! The great accomplishment of mankind, the ability to reason and understand the natural world with only logic to guide us! Even better, math... the purest of all sciences, based not on experiment, as all other natural sciences are, but on the full force of the human imagination. The sciences are as pure and crisp and black and white as one needs them to be. It is solid, it is clean, it is the most structured way to understand the universe. And yet... I love art, specifically music. Born into a musical family, my heart and mind pulse with melodies and rhythm, an internal fire that fuels my soul. Distinctions can be minutely subtle, blending, moving freely and colorfully. No science can describe what the mind experiences when it hears music. For aestheticism is not a science... and I know that I appreciate beauty, natural beauty of water and forests and landscapes, and musical beauty of a spiritual and cosmic quality.

In each, one can see the Scientist, or Analyst; or the Poet, or Romantic.

As a final thought... great moments arise when the two forces experience synergy. For beauty is inherent in the most elegant and practical and simple proofs, the charm and cleanliness of a solution. And mathematical precision and symmetry lends immaculate beauty to any art or music piece. Perhaps, then, the ruling power is Beauty... beauty in analysis of the universe, beauty in coloring it expressively.