The Middle…and Truth
I was listening to extreme radio the other day. The host was pronouncing the great good that the current administration is doing in the world. Later in the same day I heard another host proclaiming the disaster that the current administration is wreaking on the world. And recently, I had the chance to meet individually (on separate occasions) with Nobel Prize winning physicists Martin Perl and Charles Townes. One proclaimed that he is an athiest and the other observed that there must be some sort of spiritual guide to our amazing universe.
These observations led me to ask, “How is it that from the same set of data, each of these bright minds have arrived at polar opposite conclusions? What and where is the middle?” And, “Is it possible that the truth lies in the middle, or is there really only one true answer?”
First; what and where is the middle? …And the truth?
I was listening to extreme radio the other day. The host was pronouncing the great good that the current administration is doing in the world. Later in the same day I heard another host proclaiming the disaster that the current administration is wreaking on the world. And recently, I had the chance to meet individually (on separate occasions) with Nobel Prize winning physicists Martin Perl and Charles Townes. One proclaimed that he is an athiest and the other observed that there must be some sort of spiritual guide to our amazing universe.
These observations led me to ask, “How is it that from the same set of data, each of these bright minds have arrived at polar opposite conclusions? What and where is the middle?” And, “Is it possible that the truth lies in the middle, or is there really only one true answer?”
First; what and where is the middle? …And the truth?
In people, it’s the belly. In people, it’s the brain
In politics, it’s the compromise. In politics, it’s the investigation
In music, it’s the peak of a phrase. In music, it’s the re-creation
In a sphere, it’s the locus of the radius. In a sphere, it’s the locus of the radius.
In math, it’s the average or the mean. In math, it’s the proof.
In airlines, it’s the hub airport. In airlines, it’s the safe arrival
In a city, it’s the central district. In the city, it’s the social interaction
In a trip, it’s the midpoint. In a trip, it’s the experience.
In an effort, it’s half way. In an effort, it’s the result.
In time, it’s an equal number of In time, it’s the continued refinement
oscillations on either side of an instant. of measurement
Now it seems that for some data, there is no middle. In the question of religion, for example, it seems that there either is, or is not, a God. It doesn’t seem logical to think that there would be a pseudo-Creator. And in science, it seems that there is observable fact. Either a star exists or it doesn’t. In life, it appears that you’re either alive or dead…or is there an instant when you’re both?
In football, they call it mid-field. But that’s anywhere from about the 40 to the 40. With twenty yards of middle, that represents one fifth of the total. That’s a pretty big middle.
Even midnight is not in the middle of the night. Because of the earth’s alignment with the sun, and depending where you are on the planet, midnight doesn’t exactly divide dusk from dawn.
“I’m in the middle of a project”, we sometimes say. That could be anywhere from just having begun the project to almost at the end. On a relative scale, that might mean anywhere from 5% to 95% completion. That is how we can manipulate the middle to represent the truth in a way we like without actually lying. Honey, “I’m in the middle of something…I’ll be there in a little while”.
My father once told me about the professor who used the phrase “For all practical purposes”. A sharp student questioned him on what he meant. To illustrate his point, he divided the class in two by sex, with the men along the wall on one side of the room and the women against the opposite wall. He instructed them to each advance half way toward the middle of the room. Again he gave the same instruction, to advance half way. Upon repetition several times, he noted that the students would theoretically never reach the middle. But they would be close enough for all practical purposes.
Where is middle, what is truth?
Where is the middle?
You can count.
You can measure
You can fold in half.
You can cut
You can dissect
You can draw an arc.
You can split
You can estimate
You can draw a line.
But where is the middle?
It’s where you want it to be!
What is the truth?
You can count
You can measure
You can fold in half.
You can cut
You can dissect
You can draw an arc.
You can split
You can estimate
You can draw a line.
But what is the truth?
It’s what you want it to be.
©Frank Bliss 2005 All rights reserved.20050901
In a sphere, it’s the locus of the radius. In a sphere, it’s the locus of the radius.
In math, it’s the average or the mean. In math, it’s the proof.
In airlines, it’s the hub airport. In airlines, it’s the safe arrival
In a city, it’s the central district. In the city, it’s the social interaction
In a trip, it’s the midpoint. In a trip, it’s the experience.
In an effort, it’s half way. In an effort, it’s the result.
In time, it’s an equal number of In time, it’s the continued refinement
oscillations on either side of an instant. of measurement
Now it seems that for some data, there is no middle. In the question of religion, for example, it seems that there either is, or is not, a God. It doesn’t seem logical to think that there would be a pseudo-Creator. And in science, it seems that there is observable fact. Either a star exists or it doesn’t. In life, it appears that you’re either alive or dead…or is there an instant when you’re both?
In football, they call it mid-field. But that’s anywhere from about the 40 to the 40. With twenty yards of middle, that represents one fifth of the total. That’s a pretty big middle.
Even midnight is not in the middle of the night. Because of the earth’s alignment with the sun, and depending where you are on the planet, midnight doesn’t exactly divide dusk from dawn.
“I’m in the middle of a project”, we sometimes say. That could be anywhere from just having begun the project to almost at the end. On a relative scale, that might mean anywhere from 5% to 95% completion. That is how we can manipulate the middle to represent the truth in a way we like without actually lying. Honey, “I’m in the middle of something…I’ll be there in a little while”.
My father once told me about the professor who used the phrase “For all practical purposes”. A sharp student questioned him on what he meant. To illustrate his point, he divided the class in two by sex, with the men along the wall on one side of the room and the women against the opposite wall. He instructed them to each advance half way toward the middle of the room. Again he gave the same instruction, to advance half way. Upon repetition several times, he noted that the students would theoretically never reach the middle. But they would be close enough for all practical purposes.
Where is middle, what is truth?
Where is the middle?
You can count.
You can measure
You can fold in half.
You can cut
You can dissect
You can draw an arc.
You can split
You can estimate
You can draw a line.
But where is the middle?
It’s where you want it to be!
What is the truth?
You can count
You can measure
You can fold in half.
You can cut
You can dissect
You can draw an arc.
You can split
You can estimate
You can draw a line.
But what is the truth?
It’s what you want it to be.
©Frank Bliss 2005 All rights reserved.20050901
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