“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Archimedes
If he were alive today, do you think he would be surprised that this type of thinking principle would not only move the world but that it makes up what the world and in fact everything in existence is made? I am of course referring to the Type I Seesaw Mechanism, ( click the link if you need a refresher in quantum field theory and its importance), though that is not the type of seesaw that we are going to discuss further today.
No!
We will be discussing, why the physical piece of equipment is the most important piece of equipment ON Earth.
A seesaw is defined as; A long plank balanced in the middle on a fixed support. or as a verb it is defined as; A situation characterized by rapid, repeated changes from one state or condition to another. Did you ever play on a seesaw as kid, or as an adult for that matter? What about just standing on a stick or board with a rock or ball in the middle learning to rock back and forth and keep your balance? Did you notice how easy it was to remain stable when both ends of the board had approximately the same weight either from each foot or from each participant? Of course you did! It is such a simple thing to grasp that is why it is a standard piece of children’s playground equipment. I am sure you also noticed that it did not work so well when one end was much heavier than the other, right? Of course you did! Have you thought about how that same principle should be applied to every other aspect in your life? I hope you have! If you haven’t don’t feel bad, I don’t, and the epiphany did not hit me until well into adulthood. The seesaw teaches us that balance is the key to a happy life, and that is a true lesson. Let’s apply the principle to our lives. Think of life as the fixed support across which the board is placed. The board is then our lifetime. You and everything in your life, (wants, needs, desires, hopes, dreams, family, friends, responsibilities, work, and anything else that comes to mind), must all fit on this board. First, we have to assign the weight for each thing in our life, the value that it holds for us is what determines the weight . We do this naturally by the amount of time that we choose to spend on each aspect. The more time we spend the more weight we assign, to whatever it may be. How can we make room for everything and make sure that nothing falls off?
The heaviest things, belong in the center of the board as close to life as we can put them. You continue the process out to either end stacking things on top of each other when necessary for space or to keep the balance. Are you with me so far? Are you thinking, “Wow, that is not the way I would like to do things! I spend most of my time at work, but work is not the most important thing to me.” It’s understandable to feel this way, but rest assured, what you spend most of your time on is the priority. If you are only working so much to provide for your family so that they have the best life they can, you think that your family is the priority, right? Wrong, work is the priority. Work is then the vehicle through which you achieve your goal of providing the best you can for your family. I guess that is why we hear so much about the work/life balance. This is not a judgment exercise though, just accept that it is a fact, how you spend your time creates the value of a thing to you. Let’s go back now and take everything off the board, (our lifetime). Now let’s put things on the board in priority of what we feel are the most important, not based on the amount of time we spend on them. What we feel are the most important things to us now go in the center, and those less important things further out on the board. The weight assigned for the time spent on each thing still applies. Can you still make it balance? I sure hope you can. So, at some point you get it all sorted out. Everything in your life, balanced on life, laid out on the timeline of your life. As new things arrive, be they good or bad, you have to continue to find space to put them and stay in balance. We learned as children from this simple piece of playground equipment that if it is not in balance it becomes a very bumpy ride of high’s and low’s, and worst case scenario we just fall off. Some of you might be thinking, that those high’s and low’s are part of life, and the bumps along the way are part of the fun. Some of you are even thinking, that it is by going to the extremes of our abilities that we achieve the greatest success, just look at the single mindedness of great champions like Michael Jordan! Single minded determination, hard work and talent brought him to the be known as the greatest at his discipline. He made the choice to sacrifice many things in his life in order to achieve his goals. I still hold that he was balanced in his approach! You have to remember what creates the weight and where we place those boxes along the line. The thing you spend your time on is your priority, right? It kept things in balance by the shear weight in the middle. There were very light boxes for everything else in his life. He is now fifty seven years old, and I am sure that he has all of those boxes shifted and moved around. It is this self assessment we must go through in order to live a happy life making sure the two different models align. Our life, our happiness, is depending on this balance. The lesson, illustrated to us on the playground, everything, from each persons, personal life, to the orbits of planets, to the principles of quantum mechanics, to nature itself, tell us that the seesaw is in fact the most important piece of equipment on Earth. When humanity finally comes to grips with this fact, we will see an end to the destruction of our planet. We will see humans in harmony with themselves able to find balance and harmony with others. We will see nature and industry working together in a perfect balance. So why is the seesaw the most important piece of equipment on Earth? Balance, is the short answer.
