Duality

Lisa liked to go to the lake, in the orange glow of the sunset, and watch the ripples in the water. It made her feel lost, and at the same time, fully aware. It was where she felt at home, her own place of belonging. She was mesmerized by the endless continuity of the ripples. She was a woman of science, and being intrigued and curious was a part of her nature.

James liked to stay in his cabin, in the orange glow of the lamps, and listen to the drops falling on the roof. It made him feel relaxed, and at the same time, extremely powerful. It was his own place of belonging, where he felt at home. He was fascinated by the endless discreteness of the drops. He was a man of faith, and being satisfied and content was a part of his nature.

Lisa had a deep relationship with music, for the dynamics of each song she heard gave her a liberating sense of movement through time. James, however, was a connoisseur of paintings and sculpture, and he found a strange peace in experiencing the static, that which was immovable in space. In the fabric of space-time, Lisa found fulfillment in the exciting process of becoming, while James found it in the undisturbed state of being.

James often thought about free will and fate, and he intuitively knew that somehow they were connected. It was a question he found worth pondering, and he wondered if he was pondering because he could, or because he should. For him, the cause had always been more important than the effect. Lisa, on the other hand, had always been more concerned with the effect, and found it worth her while to look for answers. She relished the pure logic and reason that spoke of the duality of waves and particles, of electricity and magnetism, of the vertical and the horizontal. While James was interested in the aesthetics of symmetry and asymmetry, Lisa was interested in the scales of the very large and the very small. James believed in the internal, Lisa in the external.

Yet though they were different, they were also the same. The threads of duality had woven them inseparably together, although they had never met. They were independent individuals who were parts of the same whole, and were thus dependent on each other. They both had played with predictability and uncertainty, with complexity and simplicity. They had both taken upon themselves the responsibility to explore the relative and the absolute. Sometimes they had been the hammer, and sometimes the nail. Sometimes the sword, and sometimes the sheath. They were both devoted worshipers of the supreme duality of the finite and the infinite. And they were both waiting for the Event --the Event that would unite the Yin and the Yang.

The night and the day overlapped in the mysterious mosaic of twilight, and the fading light merged into the glowing shadows. They both sat still, waiting to see what lay in that unseen spectrum between black and white.