Ok, the planetary orbits are not circles but in many cases, they are close. For our purposes here, close enough. Circles are the thing. Going around once is a single cycle.
We have cycles all through our lives. Before we began our lives and continuing on after them, we will still have all sorts of circles and cycles.
Quite a long time ago, several decades, two other professors and I used to teach a course called "Futures". It was an attempt to consider what we could of the future, the future of everything, all futures were fair game. We had varied backgrounds: research methodology, history, and natural resources but that wasn't nearly enough to cover all the quite varied interests the students had. We found that these reflective young people thinking about how to live their lives carried deep worries about the future. Some feared too much earthquake and geothermal activity while others feared deadly air pollution and water shortage. It seemed that what gripped one person differed from the deep fear of another.
We can be moving through or around various circles and spaces. There are two previous blog posts about spaces in which we live: 2008 and 2011. My experience has been that learning about enough multiple dangers and things to worry about has lowered my general fear level. Further, when I see that my face is falling and wrinkling, I don't zip over to medical care because I know I am cycling through my life. As I learned about more and more cycles and circles, I learn more reasons that things happen.
I just learned that our whole solar system cycles around the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years. Besides that, the trip includes ups and downs along the path that brings us above and below the plane of the orbit. Conditions are not the same at the up points as at the down points.
The interesting book "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett explores the basic nature of Western thought as being linear: we progress along a line, as from birth to death or from one decade to another. He contrasts that with the basic nature of Eastern thought which is more based on circles and cycles. Neither model answers all questions or fits perfectly but both have value.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
