There are, Ted tells me, two kinds of people: lumpers and splitters. While it at first seems obvious to me that there is a difference, the distinction disappears when I try to figure out which one I am. Ted says I’m a splitter. I want to define things, separate them out into categories. I’ll own that. But I’m a lumper too. I want to know the connections. How does it all fit?
It’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. You get everything together and then realize there is a whole other category. Fractile-like, the pattern is revealed and repeats itself as whole but random. There’s beauty in that, but frustration too. I want to see the big picture, have a grasp of the whole. Every time I think I’ve got it framed, it’s clear that something else lives just beyond. That other often turns out to be not nearly so foreign as I supposed. Just another part of the same repeating pattern.
Every time I take a single piece for granted, it surprises me in its complexity, revealing a world of beauty previously overlooked. The farther in I go, the more I grasp the broader picture. Its easy to get sucked in and forget to come up for air. Once I’ve got it split down to the essence, there lies a whole lump just waiting to reveal its complexity. Such meta-conversation. Time to enjoy a beautiful 3 day weekend.