 ¬ Sitting in the kitchen,
¬ I'd been pouring over the book I wrote to you about in one of my last letters,
¬ the one about circles, squares, triangles and hexagons.
¬ I reached these lines:
¬ "If the manifestation of the point is indicative of a departure from its source [line],
¬ then direction is implied.
¬ Direction in space is qualitative,
¬ and hence the first departure or line path from the point is qualitative.
¬ Homogeneous space is a contradiction in terms -
¬ if it is to be measured -
¬ the proof of this lying in the need to relate measurement to quantitative space:
¬ a measurement is only possible between two points (the ends of a line-path);
¬ hence direction must precede measurement.
¬ Once a direction is taken in space,
¬ that direction depends on a choice having been made
¬ and thus homogeneity is by definition canceled.
¬ From the outset space definition is qualitative.
¬ The line-path can be taken as representing the point 'externalizing' itself.
¬ A line, i.e. when a point has moved outside and
¬ away from its original position, symbolizes the polarity of existence,
¬ although it consists essentially of three elements -
¬ two ends and a relationship between them."
¬ I looked up.
¬ There, the new moon in the sky.
¬ I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror,
¬ looked directly in my own eyes and smiled.
¬ I understand my father's ritual now.
¬ Every time he saw the new moon in the sky,
¬ he would turn to one of us kids, if we were around,
¬ and before letting his gaze fall on anything else,
¬ he would look directly in our eyes and offer us a broad smile.
¬ And a prayer. It was to protect us from the fate of the moon,
¬ that eternally-exiled sister of earth,
¬ and to depart upon us its blessing,
¬ that of a wanderer yearning for home.
¬ If you were near, I would give you my smile, my sister.
¬ The polarity of our existence is at once the foundation of our unity,
¬ as it is inconceivable to think of the earth without the moon,
¬ which affects its movement and its bounty,
¬ and the moon without the earth,
¬ which directs its movement in an otherwise bottomless future.
¬ My prayer for us both.
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