There...

It is called a Mobius Strip, named after a famous German mathematician and topologist. It is simply a strip of paper joined together at the ends, with a one-half twist in it. Whereas a strip of paper joined without the twist has two sides and two edges, a Mobius Strip has only one side and one edge. You might think that untrue, but run your finger along either the edge or the side, and you will find that it is in fact true.

Sitting on the edge of the deck, listening to the wind high in the Italian Cedar which marks the far eastern edge of the property, I ponder the simple elegance and significance of this mathematical construct.

A linear object when joined without distortion has two sides and edges, or two ways of being seen. Yet, with a twist, there is unity. One. No beginning and no end. Infinity.

And so I contemplate that idea, and how life is so much more like that simple twisted loop, with only one perspective, one side to be seen, and only one edge to touch. We travel in our loops, some so large you cannot see the twist, and others so small that their owners lives seem to spin and twist without respite.

The sun moves. The air warms. I wonder if I am on the edge or side of my loop, and how does life seem different depending upon the answer to that question. On the edge, I can see much further, but I little room to move, but in the inexorable straight line. On the sidw of my loop, I can stretch out a bit, but all is flat and lifeless.

So it is with much of life, spinning and twisting, only to find yourself back at the beginning. Perhaps it is our fate, to wander these loops that are our lives, endlessly moving from edge to side, edge to side, hoping to find more than a beginning that ends, or the end of the beginning.

I remember paper chains decorating Christmas trees. If our loops are joined we each other like those chains, then regardless of our eternal spiraling, we stand a chance where edges meet, or we can see the other persons side...

Mustang