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| Joined: | Mon Nov 21st, 2005 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 6399 |
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Somebody,
I am interested in communicating with somebody. You might say that I’ve come to realize that my interest is summed up in that one cause; for now.
Please allow me to try to explain.
Knowledge is like a powerful weapon. One can use the weapon or abuse it.
The more accurate the knowledge, then, the shaper and more powerful will be the weapon; on both sides.
My interest in communicating with someone is an interest in sharpening our weapons; mine and someone’s.
I’m offering a trade secret.
My offering may turn out to be counter-productive depending upon forces that are out of my control.
Here is the secret:
Find contradiction. Think of contradiction in terms of the sharpening of a sword. Perhaps the sword is obviously dull.
Example:
The sword is used to cut off a moldy portion on a loaf of bread. The sword, being dull, hacks at the loaf of bread and instead of separating the moldy portion from the loaf the sword ends up spreading the mold everywhere.
Now; please consider the folly of sharpening the sword with the loaf of bread.
At this time you may arrive at a point where your interpretation of my words appears to be insulting.
I, on the other hand, think that I am trying to pay you a compliment. In other words; my efforts now intend to give you the credit that you deserve.
Are you skeptical?
Will you stop reading?
Consider:
I do not spend a whole lot of time trying to sharpen my blade with a loaf of bread.
I need a very hard abrasive stone first. A powered grinding wheel is even better. The object is to rough out the shape of a taper on the edge. The roundness of the edge must be cut off efficiently. In machinist language the effort can be called HOGGING.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hogging
“To shred (waste wood, for example) by machine.”
Let the chips fly!
The chips, from my perspective, are contradictions.
I look at a person who has what appears to be a lot of roundness on a hard surface to be a very efficient sharpening stone. I see that person as a challenge. Perhaps I am the sharpening stone; I think.
What I am looking for is contact between the blade and the stone; at just the right angle.
It serves no purpose to beat on the stone with the sword edgewise.
The stone chips and becomes irregular in shape, useless as a sharpening tool, and the sword flattens on the edge and becomes dull.
Shall we keep whacking?