Perspective in a Three Ring Circus
As students slowly began to fill his classroom, Doc stood at the table, cutting yet another onion crossways into rings. Once everyone was in and settled, Doc held one of the rings above his head and said, "Here I am once again, this onion ring, spinning and twirling, through time and space."Then Doc picked up a ring on the table and tossed it to one of his students, saying, "And here's your ring."Then he picked up another ring and tossed it to a different student. Then he did this again and again to each student in turn, each time saying, "Here's yours...and yours...and yours...and yours...," until each student held an onion ring in his or her hand. "Today we're going to do a little exercise in connection and perspective," Doc said. "It's one of our most challenging lessons thus far, as it requires imagination above all else, making pictures in our minds. Now to start I'd like you to put your index finger in the onion ring center and start twirling it around...that's right, just like this, start twirling the ring about your finger...and imagine that's you spinning through time and space."Of course this silliness soon had everyone giggling and laughing. But Doc kept talking.Ok now, keep going, keep spinning...you've got the hang of it...there ya go...keep going...spinning...ok...now stop. Keep in mind this notion that you're always moving...spinning...twirling through time and space. Now get with a partner and overlap your onions together, just like I showed you last time. In this exercise you want to get a sense of yourself in relation to another. Remember, the overlap of our onions represents how we share time-space together. Now as you set your overlapped onions on the desk, I'd like you to discuss your answers and views about the Riddle of the Rings. Take a few minutes to do this."As the class began to discuss the Riddle of Rings, Doc went around to each pair of students, setting on their table a third onion ring. And of course as he walked around, Doc couldn't help but listen to what his students had to say about the riddle and what their positions were. In the great tradition of Zeno, this was the type of riddle-teaching-discussion Doc had come to love best over the years, seeking not so much right and wrong answers from his students, but rather foremost getting them to think, pushing their minds into quandaries and dilemmas from which there was no clear escape, at least without getting really creative. Some students found Doc's ways frustrating and confusing, for they were accustomed to being fed clearly defined answers, facts they simply had to memorize. Not that Doc didn't have facts in his class, but memorization never took precedent over critical thinking."Ok, if I could have everyone's attention please!" Doc interrupted the loud buzz of debate and discussion. "Hello...hello everyone...I realize we could discuss this riddle forever, but it's time to move on to something else.""C'mon Doc," groaned one of his students, "We were just getting warmed-up.""That's good Darin," said Doc, "Then you'll be ready for our next exercise, which you and your partner Denise can help us get going. Judging by your heated debate, I imagine you each had different answers to the riddle?""I think the two overlapped onion rings is the true reality of connection" said Darin proudly, a very gifted student of physics. "I mean, two people sharing the same time-space, that's where the real life of a relationship is."Doc raised an eyebrow as he listened to Darin, then turned to Denise."Real connection is more than just holding hands," said Denise. "People really connect in their minds...in their hearts.""I like the way the put that," said Doc. "It doesn't sound very scientific, but then again, if science doesn't take into account such things as mental-emotional connections, it's really only explaining part of the story in its so-called theories of everything. And to create such grand theories while ignoring such very basic questions...well, that hardly represents the true spirit of science.""So Doc, you think Denise is right then?" asked Darin."Not necessarily," said Doc. "But the fact that you each see the riddle differently is a good place to start the next exercise. Because this is after all, an exercise in perspective. What we'll try to see next is that two different perspectives do not have to be our only choices. In other words, in such riddles as this, there's always a third perspective, whether we see it or not. And yet this third perspective does not necessarily exclude either of the first two."Doc held up his left index finger as if to say he needed a moment to gather his thoughts, while at the same time he raised his right hand to show it held three onion rings. Then he asked the students to gather around his desk as he preceded to overlap and arrange the three onion rings on his desktop in such a manner that all three rings overlapped equally and shared a common space in the center. Then Doc took a deep breath before beginning, knowing this idea of the three-ring circus could be a challenge to teach. Then he decided to back up a bit, and removed one of the rings, leaving just two rings there, overlapped like before. The third ring he began to spin around his finger just like everyone did at the beginning of the lesson."Ok, now as we're having this discussion," Doc said, "I'd like you to remember this ring, which represents you, is always moving, spinning through time-space. Now it doesn't matter how fast you're moving. Just know you are spinning and twirling, dancing if you wish, through the universe."Doc stopped spinning the single onion ring and set it down, now focusing his attention on the overlapped pair."Now, in the course of dancing alone, you notice there are other dancing rings, dancing right alongside you. So---drawn by a force that all dancers know but don't necessarily understand---you decide to go join hands with one of these other dancers. And you dance, for a while at least, as a pair." Doc started spinning the two overlapped onions together as if they were two gears in an old watch or car transmission. Still overlapping, the two rings continued to dance for awhile. Then Doc pulled them apart."Now, after dancing together for a while, for whatever reason, you let go. And again you're dancing solo. Then, after a time, you yet again find yourself dancing with another ring. And the two of you are held together, at least for awhile, by that same mysterious force, a force the scientist might call a strange attractor and the romantic poet,love. In any event, and by whatever name we call it, some mysterious force draws us together, in one form or another, in this dance of existence."Now Doc took a whole handful of onion rings, perhaps two dozen or more and spread them around his black slate desktop as before, with many rings overlapping to various degrees in various groupings of twos, threes, fours and mores...and a few rings alone as singles."Now what we have here is a very small sample of the human population in general. Think of this as a quick snapshot taken at any one instant. Note the people dancing, interacting, in all sorts of arrangements and patterns...some overlapping a lot, some a little, and some not at all. Are you with me?"Doc reached into the mass of rings and started mixing them around in a new pattern and arrangement of overlapped groupings and singles."Now this is another instant in time. Note the new groupings and arrangements. Of course, this rearranging happens all the time as our relationships in life come together and fall apart. You get the idea?"Doc now swept the whole pile of onion rings off to the side and replaced the dancing mass with a single pair of overlapped rings, just as he started with."Now I'll leave you with one last thing in this lesson of connection and perspective. Let's get back to where we started. Here are two rings dancing as a pair, sharing time-space together. But in this case these two rings are not dancing together in harmony. Like Darin and Denise in their differing viewpoints of the Riddle of the Rings, they disagree. In fact, their views are completely opposite or contrary. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, In fact, such conflict can lead to new solutions never before seen or thought of. They just need another perspective. And there are many ways in time and space this can happen. For now, I'll show you just one."Without saying a word, Doc grinned at his audience, and started slowly turning on his axis, spinning his body like a top in slow motion."Here I am, a spinning onion ring," Doc says. "Now as I spin around, I see the entire room and everything in it from a 360 degree perspective. In doing so I get a fairly full picture of what the room looks like, do I not?"All the students nodded their heads, or at least no one objected, as Doc now stopped spinning and turned his attention to the two rings joined in a pair."Ok, now let's take Darin's onion and say he can only spin halfway around. In other words, he can only see half the room as he spins 180 degrees back and forth. Now let's say the same is true of Denise, she too can only see half of the room. Only in Denise's case, she sees the opposite side of the room, the side Darin cannot see. So quite naturally, when trying to agree what exactly the room looks like, the two can never completely agree. Yet neither Darin nor Denise is wrong. They just don't see the whole picture because each has limited perspective. Now here I come."Doc now places a third ring on top of the pair in the same manner he did before, with all three rings overlapping equally and sharing a common space in the center. This symmetric arrangement of the three rings creates a sort of triangular figure."Ok, now, when two perspectives are completely opposite, adding a third perspective---such as I have done in this case by adding my own onion ring---can help all parties see a broader, more complete picture of the room. In other words, because the views of three onion rings overlap in this way---with their differing perspectives filling in the blanks for each other---together they can create a more complete picture. And notice their new picture does not exclude the previous views of the other. Nobody's view was wrong, is was just incomplete. Does that make sense?"Doc gave a long pause after saying this. Then once again picked-up the onion rings piled on the side and spread them all over the table, in yet another new arrangement. Then he exhaled a long satisfied sigh."Here we all are again, dancing through time-space." Doc said, waving his hand over the arrangement of onion rings spread on the table. "The way I see it, we human beings, along with the rest of Creation, are dancing through this existence, traveling en masse through the Universe, the nature of which we are, all together, just beginning to figure out. The Riddle of the Rings, as well as the rest of the onion stories, are offered here as metaphors to better understand how this might happen, especially in regard to balance, connection and perspective. Any questions?"After a slight pause, a single hand went into the air. It was one of Doc's most inquisitive students, Dean."Does the Riddle have a final answer?" "I can't say," grinned Doc. "But if you keep up your practice you'll find out yourself soon enough."So here's a few more exercises to further stretch your perspective.1. Think of one spinning ring as you and the other spinning ring as the world in which you live. Where the rings overlap, that is your life in time-space. At the two nodes where the rings intersect, one node is your birth, and the other node is your death. Just think about that for moment. Now, considering your ring is not just a body, but also mind-spirit-energy, imagine the nature of your "self" beyond time-space, on the other side between the nodes.
2. Think of one spinning ring as you, and the other spinning ring as someone you love very much. And again where the rings overlap, that is the physical time-space you share. Now in this case, what do you think the intersection points or nodes of the two rings represent? Remembering your ring is not just a body, explain how you might remain connected to this other person even when your rings no longer overlap?
3. Realizing, as in question #2 above, how relationships may persist beyond time-space, think of some such relationships in your own life. Do you feel good about all of them? Do any of them make you feel bad or give unrest? If so, why?
4. As in question #3 above, think of a relationship you are unsettled with. Now imagine a third ring coming into the picture and, as in the case of today's lesson, this third ring is there to provide another perspective of the situation, a healing alternative if you will. Imagine what this third perspective might look like. Remember, the perspective of the third ring cannot invalidate the perspectives of the other two rings.
5. Finally, imagine yourself as three separate rings coming together in time and space, with each ring representing you at three different ages/stages in life, or even three different lifetimes. Now think of a single critical event in your life and imagine how each of your three different perspectives might view the situation. (Example: see yourself a child as one ring, your child's parent as the second ring, and your third ring somewhere in between child and parent.) As in map-making, this exercise involves a sort soul-triangulation. It can help you locate and understand critical areas of conflict in your life, areas where you are stuck. Once these areas are located and understood, one may grow beyond them.
"Ok, that's it, class dismissed," Doc smiled... "And oh yes, don't forget your extra-credit assignment!"Ding.
