A Fine Balance

Reposting this.  I feel it is the basis of all my writing.

I have strong convictions about achieving balance in our universe, our world, in every aspect of our personal lives.

Googling fine balance today I find a book by Rohinton Mistry.  This is a story from life in India, a single woman, untouchables.  A major quote from the story: "Life is a fine balance between hope and despair."

There is a documentary that I love to recommend to all my friends: "Particle Fever". It is the physical evidence of the fine balance in our universe.  The best physicists in the world got together and built the particle accelerator in CERN, Switzerland.  They tried to recreate the big bang, the event where we all have come to exist.  The physicists had two theories about the nature of our universe: one theory predicted that the universe is symmetric, predictable, ordered.  The second theory predicted the opposite: our universe is all random and chaotic.  To find out which theory is correct they performed the experiment with the smallest atoms that makes our bodies and our world: hydrogen.  They accelerated these hydrogen atoms to extremely high speeds and then smashed two beams together to recreate the big bang.  That is how it all started.  It is the origin of all the matters in our lives.  The physicists then studied all the resulting particles.  They analyzed the immense amount of data and came to this conclusion:  our universe is neither all symmetric nor all chaotic.  They now have to refine each theory: what is the order in the chaos in one case or what is the randomness in the symmetry.  It is a fine balance.

Philosophers have a similar debate: Are events in our lives all predestined, or do we have control over them?  Is there free will?  You will find volumes written and descriptions of the fine balance between the two states.

Some visual examples of fine balance:

Metabolic pathways in our bodies: All the processes in our bodies are in a very delicate balance.  From fat buildup to prepare for famine to utilization of oxygen energy in the mitochondria, all are interconnected.

 A spider web:
It could be pulled a bit one way or the other without disturbing the balance, but if you pull too hard it will collapse, turning into chaos.

A Forest fire in Yosemite: Chaos amidst the majestic redwood trees.

The fire facilitates germination of seeds deep in the earth.

 

In closing I would state that you will find my writing about any subject striving to find the fine balance.  It could be on health and diet.  It could be on the very topics that divide us: Politics and religion.