October 30, 2008
-
The Symmetry of Life
Yesterday my dad walked into our house, and, without looking at him, my friend Matt flicked him off. Once he realized it was my dad he began laughing and apologizing, explaining he thought it was Cory, who had just sent him a nasty text message a few minutes before (which, my dad went on to explain, was still not a good reason for doing such a thing).
Now Matt and Alex live in the attic, and I needed something of mine that Alex had, so I went up to get it. Upon coming back down I opened the door at the bottom of the stairs to find Cory standing there flicking me off. Surprised it was me, he lowered his hand and explained he thought it was Matt coming down the stairs.
And there you have it. A father and son each accidentally flicked off in a cross-fire between two other people on the very same day.
Another symmetry:
On Tuesday afternoon Matt sat in a chair with his legs in the air and his face near the floor and this dialogue followed:
Matt: I don’t know why we don’t always sit like this. This way we would never spill our drinks.
Philip: And we will be able to swallow up, thus disproving gravity.
Matt: Take that, Einstein!
Philip: I think you mean Newton.
Matt: I mean them both!
Then, the morning after, while I was sitting in the living room reading The Republic Kevin and I had this dialogue:
Philip: It seems like people nowadays think that we are all smarter than everyone back in the ancient world. But that’s not true—there’s a lot of things in The Republic that most people today couldn’t think up.
Kevin: Well, it’s not that we’re better thinkers, it’s just we have more access to knowledge if we want it.
Philip: Mmmm. I suppose.
Kevin: For instance I could learn calculus if I wanted to because of Thomas Newton.
Philip: I think you mean Isaac Newton.And there you have that—misnamed twice within twelve hours. And I see that if inventing calculus and discovering the basic laws of nature did not help Newton much, I do not have very good chances of being remembered very long.
But then, we should all already know:
“For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
in days to come both will be forgotten.”
Comments (10)
Discovered, not founded.
But ah, yes. Coincidences.
I enjoy your writing. Props to you
@yello_lego -
Ah, thank you. I hate going through posts later and realizing all the dumb mistakes I made. Much appreciated.
Exactly. Because the whole point of discovering gravity or inventing calculus is all that fame.
Is that last quote from the Republic?
@immortalwithout -
Well, he did get all huffed up about it once Gottfried Leibniz claimed to have coincidentally invented calculus independently of Newton at the exact same time. So Newton’s all like, “Look at my mad skillz at inventing calculus” and then Leibniz is like “Ditto that holmes” and then Newton’s like “OH NO YOU DIDN’!” I’m sure it was all very dramatic.
It’s from Ecclesiastes.
Ah, life. It does one good.
This made me laugh. ~ L
ha! amusing!
my white rabbit’s name is panther, lol! i love giving animals random names.
the more boring and obvious names thrown around: cottontail and silky (she’s incredibly soft). ve. to. panther is perfect. hmm…other names? ha! hercules. 
I always, always, always enjoy what you say. It’s like my philosophy fix for the day whenever I read your blog. Amazing as always sir.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you.